My Gamer Academia
by All Hail Science
Summary: It turns out that Izuku is not quirkless… not that anyone believes him. With the help of his Gamer quirk and his own sharp intellect, Izuku sets out to prove that you don't need to be born powerful to become a hero. Upgraded to M so I don't have to worry about profanity.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I noticed that one of the most popular fics here, The Gaming Deku by RagingSoul, had a huge amount of activity with only two chapters. It seems like a lot of people really want an Academia/Gamer fic to happen. I decided to take a crack at it, since I've been interested in writing some sort of Gamer fic in some fandom. I've made a couple tweaks to the Gamer system rather than just exactly copying it. Hopefully you guys like the changes I've made. Enjoy!**

Izuku watched, wide eyed, as the pro hero and supervillain faced each other down on the bridge in front of him. On the right was Kamui Woods, an up and coming hero who operated in the area. Kamui was quite mysterious, a tall masked hero who never showed his true face. His mystique was part of the reason for his rapid rise in popularity, though of course he would have gotten nowhere unless he had been skilled enough to back up his image.

Opposite him, on Izuku's left, was a monstrous, unknown villain. He looked mostly humanoid, except for the massive, ugly facial features that were currently contorted into a snarl. Izuku supposed that the villain must've recently decided on his criminal profession, since he hadn't seen the ugly brute before and such an unsubtle quirk would certainly have caught the media's attention if it had been used illegally previously.

Izuku loved to watch the pro heroes fight villains, both because he was a personal fan of the heroes and because it gave him a chance to learn more about different quirks and the people behind them. He quickly scanned the hero using his quirk.

 **Name: Kamui Woods**

 **Level: 33**

 **Title: Hero**

 **HP: 5250 / 5250**

 **SP: 4184 / 4350**

 **STR: 166**

 **STM: 174**

 **DEX: 196**

 **VIT: 175 (Quirk Bonus: +20%) = 210**

 **INT: 137**

 **WIS: 152**

 **Quirk: Arbor (Allows usage of Wood-based abilities, +20% Vitality)**

Izuku scribbled down the information in his notebook quickly. He was excited to note that Kamui had leveled up since the last time Izuku had scanned him. The young hero aspirant turned his eyes back to the stare down, scanning the villain this time.

 **Name: Unknown**

 **Level: 23**

 **Title: Criminal**

 **HP: 6200 / 6200**

 **SP: 6187 / 6400**

 **STR: 124 (Quirk Bonus: +100%) = 248**

 **STM: 128 (Quirk Bonus: +100%) = 256**

 **DEX: 109 (Quirk Penalty: -25%) = 82**

 **VIT: 139 (Quirk Bonus: +100%) = 278**

 **INT: 61**

 **WIS: 54**

 **Quirk: Giant Transformation (+100% STR, STM, VIT, -25% DEX while transformed)**

Izuku scribbled down this information too, exchanging the unknown name for "Giant Villain". It was somewhat annoying that names wouldn't show up until he actually learned them, even though he could read off someone's intelligence and other attributes right away, but it wasn't too much of a big deal for him so he shrugged it off.

Comparing the two sets of stats against each other, the young man quickly concluded that Kamui would likely be able to beat the villain by utilizing his speed advantage to dodge the villain's attacks until he got tired. Kamui has more than double the DEX of his opponent, meaning that it would be almost impossible for him to get hit. Plus, his wood attacks were versatile enough that Kamui could keep his opponent from running away and still whittle down his opponent's HP while dodging. Kamui was not very powerful, and likely couldn't stop his opponent outright, but he would win the war of attrition.

 **You've gained +1 WIS for accurately evaluating the combatants.**

Izuku smiled. He enjoyed observing heroes at work on its own, but the benefits of evaluating the hero-villain matchups definitely motivated him to continue his pastime. Izuku quickly checked his own stats, smiling at the progress he was making.

 **Name: Izuku Midoriya**

 **Level: 11**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **HP: 2100 / 2100**

 **SP: 2250 / 2250**

 **STR: 87**

 **STM: 90**

 **DEX: 94**

 **VIT: 84**

 **INT: 101**

 **WIS: 115**

 **Quirk: The Gamer (Provides the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body Abilities)**

The young boy had discovered his own quirk, the Gamer quirk, at the age of 4. At first he had been ecstatic, having finally unlocked his own super-cool ability so that he could train to become an amazing super hero just like All Might. However, his dreams had soon been tested by the cynical comments of his schoolmates.

" _What? Your quirk is that life looks like a video game to you? That's dumb."_

" _How do you expect to fight crime with that? Are you gonna_ look _at the bad guy until he gives up?"_

" _I bet you're lying about having a quirk. I bet you're actually quirkless!"_

It wasn't long before rumors had spread, painting Izuku as a quirkless loser who was lying to try and fit in. Some people still believed him about his quirk, but even they agreed that Izuku's dream of becoming a hero was unreasonable. Izuku was often teased about his quirk or apparent lack thereof, but he wasn't deterred. Izuku was determined to become a hero, no matter what it took.

So he explored his quirk, learned the ins and outs of its function. He learned about the two parts of his quirk, the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body. Gamer's Mind allowed him to resist psychologically debilitating effects like fear and pain, improving his ability to use logic under pressure. Gamer's Body allowed him to improve himself physically almost without a limit; he may not have started out stronger or smarter than anyone else, but as he grew, trained and leveled up, his stats would improve until far after any normal human would reach their peak. He could also recover from injuries and exhaustion much more easily than most, being fully refreshed by a good night's sleep.

Little four year old Izuku dreamed of being a pro hero like his idol, All Might, and knew he had to grow up big and strong to have any chance of realizing that dream; so, after seeing that some regular physical activity would raise his stats, the young boy began training. Not much at first; four year olds are not known for their dedication or attention span after all. However, they _are_ energetic, and Izuku liked seeing the notification pop up that his stats had increased. During his free time, in between watching videos of superheroes, playing with action figures and playing outside, little Izuku began doing a few push-ups here, a few sit-ups there, some running around, usually only enough to gain a skill point or two.

Later, as he recognized the hill he had to climb before he would be able to become a hero, he began training more regularly and more intensely. He may not have been given the flashiest or most impressive quirk, but he _had_ been given the means to make himself strong enough to be a pro hero despite his limitations, and he was determined to take advantage of that opportunity.

These points added up over time. Izuku, who began as a short and scrawny child, grew into a strong and healthy young man. He had maintained his lean frame, but his hard work had caused most of his baby fat to evaporate, leaving behind well developed and dense muscles. He was stronger than any of his classmates by a wide margin, and likely stronger than some of the teachers too. However, Izuku hadn't focused solely on his physical abilities.

The abilities granted by Izuku's perk had not only allowed the boy to improve his physical abilities without a limit, he had also been able to improve his mental abilities and skills without reaching any sort of peak. Just as physical training continued to build up Izuku's Strength, Stamina, Vitality and Dexterity, mental exercises helped him build up his Intellect and Wisdom. Izuku regularly read and learned about various topics to improve his Intellect, while playing strategy games and planning out strategies related to different hero and villain quirks to improve his Wisdom. He had already been bright as a child, but the continual benefits of mental training had sharpened his mind into a knowledgeable, strategic machine.

Thus, Izuku had cultivated impressively high stats despite being a relatively low level (it was tough to level up without fighting, and Izuku couldn't exactly take on villains without a quirk). He was particularly proud of his INT and WIS stats, which were as high or higher than those of many lower level villains and pro heroes. Heroes and villains were so busy training their bodies, they often neglected to train their minds. Izuku felt good about his stats and abilities; he was far stronger and smarter than anyone else his age, and was approaching the point where his stats would start to match those of sidekicks and low-level pro heroes.

However, despite his progress, Izuku couldn't help but feel a healthy dose of doubt. While The Gamer quirk was certainly useful, it didn't grant him the kind of combat abilities that were universally required for heroes to stand a chance against powerful villains. Simply matching the stats of the quirk-possessing heroes and villains wouldn't cut it; he would have to go above and beyond, possess stats _double_ , maybe even _triple_ those of his peers to have a snowball's chance in hell of being able to fight alongside or against the powerful quirks that heroes and villains had. Regardless of how impressive it was for him to be as strong or as smart as a pro hero, he would still get stomped in any kind of fight with anyone who had a useful quirk.

Some days, Izuku simply didn't believe it would be possible for him to be a hero. With how useful his quirk would be in a fight, he may as well have been quirkless.

The young Gamer's depressing thoughts were interrupted as another hero entered the battle in front of him, Mt. Lady sending the giant villain flying with an impressive kick. Izuku readied his pencil and scanned her; he had no previous data on her because she was a brand new hero, and he was interested to see what kind of stats she had.

 **Name: Mount Lady**

 **Level: 26**

 **Title: Hero**

 **HP: 6100 / 6100**

 **SP: 6173 / 6450**

 **STR: 134 (Quirk Bonus: +250%) = 469**

 **STM: 129 (Quirk Bonus: +250%) = 452**

 **DEX: 137 (Quirk Penalty: -25%) = 103**

 **VIT: 122 (Quirk Bonus: +250%) = 427**

 **INT: 97**

 **WIS: 103**

 **Quirk: Gigantification (+250% STR, STM, VIT, -25% DEX while gigantic)**

 _Huh, her quirk is pretty similar to the villain's, but more effective… if she hadn't knocked him out with that surprise attack, their clash of raw strength would probably have caused a lot of damage… still, her perk provides a large stat boost that'll put her way ahead of essentially any villain, so she'll probably be very successful as a hero… except that she caused quite a bit of damage to the bridge just with her surprise kick… her massive size and strength while transformed will limit the utility of her perk in enclosed areas..._ Izuku scribbled down the information alongside his personal notes and observations before turning back to the scene, only to see that his view had been blocked by photographers attempting to capture the… feminine appeal of Mt. Lady.

Checking his watch, Izuku's eyes widened. He was going to be late for class if he didn't get a move on! Depositing his notebook in his bag, the boy took off at a run towards his school, Aldera Junior High.

…

Izuku sat in his seat, panting, as his teacher entered the room to start class. He'd made it just in time.

"So class, as third years, it's time for you to begin thinking about your futures. I have forms here to help you choose where to go, but…" The teacher suddenly grabbed the stack of forms, tossing them into the air. "...All of you are planning on taking hero courses, right?"

The class cheered their agreement, showcasing their quirks. Izuku shrunk down near the back; with the dozens of perfectly viable hero-grade quirks surrounding him, it was easy to feel that his quirk, so inconspicuous that people thought he was quirkless, would be all but useless in the pursuit of his ultimate dream.

From one of the desks near the windows on the left, a scoff cut through the ruckus being caused by the rest of the class. "Half of these kids are gonna flunk out of the hero course in their first year. Don't lump me in with these second-rate rejects, teach."

Izuku looked over at the source of the snide comment, Katsuki Bakugo. A brief scan showed the Gamer that he was not the only one who'd been improving his stats.

 **Name: Katsuki Bakugo**

 **Level: 14**

 **Title: Student**

 **HP: 1800 / 1800**

 **SP: 1825 / 1825**

 **STR: 67**

 **STM: 73**

 **DEX: 77**

 **VIT: 72**

 **INT: 58**

 **WIS: 64**

 **Quirk: Explosion (Allows usage of Explosive abilities)**

Bakugo's stats were very solid, the highest in the class out of everyone except for Izuku. He was a shoo-in for Yuuei, more than strong enough to get in so long as he also passed the written portion (and Bakugo may have been a hothead, but he wouldn't let something as trivial as a written test stop him from getting in to Yuuei). With his powerfully offensive quirk, even Izuku's higher stats wouldn't be enough to win a fight against him.

Izuku's attention was brought back to the class when he heard his name. "...Midoriya wanted to go to Yuuei too, right?"

Suddenly, every eye in the room was on the aspiring hero. Then they all started laughing. Izuku buried his head in his arms, trying to drown out the sound, but he still heard every word.

"Really? He thinks he can get into Yuuei? What a moron."

"Heh, yea, what good is your dumb quirk compared to ours? All of us would get in before you did!"

"What are you talking about? He has a _quirk_? How about you show us, Midoriya? Oh, that's right, _you can't_!"

"Useless!"

"Quirkless!"

Izuku was suddenly propelled backwards, falling over as his desk collapsed from one of Bakugo's explosive attacks. "How do you expect to compete with me without a quirk, Deku? Has all of that daydreaming finally gone to your head?"

Izuku scrambled back against the wall, assuring Bakugo that he wasn't trying to compete with him by applying to Yuuei. Bakugo just scoffed at him, returning to his desk as the teacher brought the class back to order. Izuku looked down in shame and embarrassment, wishing not for the first time that he'd gotten a different quirk.

 **A/N: Stat explanations, because my Beta said so:**

 **STR (strength), VIT (vitality) and DEX (dexterity) are pretty straightforward. Strength is strength, vitality is health/resistance to damage (25 HP per VIT), dexterity is speed.**

 **STM (stamina) is an alternative to mana that I thought up so that there would be a number to reference for someone's overall stamina and current level of exhaustion. SP stands for Stamina Points, and it costs Stamina Points to use attacks or do other things in combat. You get 25 SP per STM point, just like HP and VIT, and if you hit 0 SP you pass out.**

 **INT (intellect) and WIS (wisdom) are two different kinds of brainpower. INT refers to general knowledge, logic and reasoning skills, memory, things like that. High INT means you can plan ahead and work through complex or tough problems. Skills like Engineering (to make gadgets and etc) and other technical skills require high INT. WIS refers to intuition, the ability to think quickly, and the ability to take in information quickly and use it. High WIS means you can react quickly to new information, make strategies and evaluate opponents on the fly. High WIS helps Observe work better, and also allows people to create new moves in the middle of a fight.**

 **A/N 2: I'm not like most authors, I actually like getting flames, so go ahead and give me your flames if you feel so inclined.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Whelp, I'm a bit flabbergasted. I got around 200 visitors to my first chapter, which is really cool, but I'm more than a little shocked that over a quarter of every single person who visited my story followed it. Over 50 follows on 200 visitors. That's** _ **amazing**_ **to me! Seriously, thank you guys so much for your support.**

Izuku stared at the damaged remnants of his hero notebook. _I guess Kacchan really isn't happy about me applying to Yuuei… but why? It's not like I'm gonna steal the spotlight from him… not that I even_ can _._

The boy grabbed the book out of the water, scaring away the fish that were nibbling on the charred edges. It looked like most of the damage was only cosmetic; he'd be able to transcribe most of it at home without losing very much. Izuku turned and began trudging his way back home.

 _I have to just ignore it. I'm stronger and faster than those guys because of my quirk, and I have the determination to be a hero. I'll pass the Yuuei entrance exam for sure. I've just gotta stay focused and ignore what everyone says._

Izuku was too tied up with his thoughts to notice the buildup of sludge behind him until it was already upon him. "Ah, look what we have here… you'll do nicely as my new host."

Izuku's eyes widened at the statement and he whirled around, quickly scanning this new threat that had snuck up on him.

 **Name: Unknown**

 **Level: 18**

 **Title: Villain**

 **HP: 2100 / 2100**

 **SP: 2275 / 2275**

 **STR: 87 (Quirk Penalty: -25%) = 65**

 **STM: 91**

 **DEX: 95 (Quirk Bonus: +25%) = 119**

 **VIT: 84**

 **INT: 60**

 **WIS: 55**

 **Quirk: Sludge Form (While Transformed: -25% STR, +25% DEX, +75% Dmg Resistance, Allows usage of Sludge techniques)**

 _Shit, he's faster than me, I won't be able to dodge or get away. He's also damage resistant, not that I could do much damage to him anyway… His strength is lower than mine, so I may be able to fight him off, and our staminas are almost the same so he won't be able to outlast me in an even fight… still, I don't know what kind of Sludge Techniques he can use, and those may very well tip the advantage in his favor._

 _Do I know any skills that could help me in this situation?_

Before the villain could initiate an attack, Izuku pulled up his ability menu and skimmed through it quickly, looking for anything he may have overlooked that could help him here.

 **Abilities:  
Hand-to-Hand Combat - LVL 5: The user attacks a target using his hands and feet without a set style or specific training. Higher strength increases damage dealt. When fighting without protective equipment, improper punches or kicks can cause self-injury.**

 **Throw - LVL 3: The user lobs an object in a direction or at a target. Heavy objects can be thrown to damage targets. Strength increases throw distance and maximum weight. Dexterity increases accuracy.**

 **Improvised Weaponry - LVL 2: The user uses anything they can get their hands on to fight. So long as the weapon is sufficiently sharp or heavy, it can be used, though not as well as properly made weapons. Strength increases damage and maximum weight. Dexterity increases weapon handling.**

 **Bluff - LVL 3: The user attempts to convince another person of something that is false. INT increases success rate when the user plans the bluff in advance. WIS increases success rate on the fly. Target WIS decreases success rate.**

The boy cursed his lack of formal training. He'd practiced fighting and gotten pretty good, but he hadn't bothered learning anything formal and he would have to fight really well to beat someone with a 75% damage reduction. However, bluffing may give him the opening he'd need to escape, since this villain didn't have a very high WIS and Izuku did.

"Stay back. My quirk is dangerous, I don't want to have to use it on you." Hopefully that would buy him some time. He didn't challenge the villain and provoke combat, but he made it clear that he was dangerous. He saw the sludge man (creature?) pause; it seemed that he was considering Izuku's warning. The young gamer began taking slow, deliberate steps towards the mouth of the tunnel, attempting to project his confidence and reinforce the image he had a quirk to defend himself.

His heart sank, however, when the villain smirked. "There's not much that can hurt me in this form. I think I can risk it." It dashed towards Izuku. _Shit! He believed my bluff, but it didn't deter him!_

Izuku began to run, hoping to at least get out of the tunnel so that passerbys might be able to see him and call for help. The villain was too close, however, and its 25 extra DEX allowed it to close that distance almost instantly, reaching out with slimy tentacles to try to wrap up and constrict Izuku. The boy was fast enough to knock the first few away with punches, doing slight damage to his villain opponent, but once again the enemy's superior DEX prevailed and Izuku went down.

 **Status Effect: Constricted (-75% DEX)**

Straining his arms and legs against the sludgy tentacles binding him, Izuku attempted to pry his way free of his opponent's grip. He met with some success, but the villain simply created more appendages to wrap around Izuku as he forced his way out of others. Suddenly, the young gamer found sludge tentacles attempting to force their way down his throat, making him gag and obstructing his breathing.

 **Status Effect: Suffocating (-50 SP per second)**

Izuku's eyes widened. The villain was going to suffocate him until he passed out, then do God-knows-what with him after he was helpless, and Izuku had less than a minute to do anything about it! He began to struggle harder, arching his body and straining his arms as hard as he could against the appendages binding him. He managed to free a hand and rip the tentacle from his mouth, taking a gasping breath.

 **Congratulations! You have learned the skill "Struggle".**

 _Really not the time!_

The villain wrapped itself around Izuku's arm, pulling it away and restraining him once again before continuing its attempted possession of him. Izuku tried to continue fighting, but felt his consciousness leaving him as his SP dwindled. _No!_

However, just as Izuku thought he was going to pass out, a bang from behind him and the villain startled him back to awareness.

"Don't worry, young man…"

The sludge man whirled around, alarmed at the voice. A spark of hope shot through Izuku.

"I am here."

The villain lashed out at the newcomer with a gelatinous arm, hoping for a miracle that wouldn't come. The newcomer dashed forward, and with a mighty roar…

" **Texas Smash!"**

...sent out a punch that instantly dispersed the viscous villain into mere droplets. The weakened Izuku dropped to the ground, coughing and gagging but safe, as particles of villain dripped down around him.

Izuku quickly checked his own HP and SP. It looked as though the slimy bastard's attacks weren't too harmful, since his HP hadn't gone down too much; however, his SP was hovering around 300 out of his total of 2250. Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. Had his savior been a few seconds later, he'd have already been unconscious, and the villain likely would have succeeded in doing… whatever he was going to do. Izuku shuddered unconsciously, before looking up at his savior and running a scan out of instinct.

 **Name: All Might**

 **Level: 71**

 **Title: Hero**

 **HP: 34.4k / 34.4k**

 **SP: 3778 / 19.5k**

 **STR: 386 (Quirk Bonus: x8, Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 1544**

 **STM: 389 (Quirk Bonus: x8, Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 4** **) = 778**

 **DEX: 330 (Quirk Bonus: x8, Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 1320**

 **VIT: 344 (Quirk Bonus: x8, Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 1376**

 **INT: 292**

 **WIS: 317**

 **Original Quirk: None**

 **Received Quirk: One For All (Allows usage of One For All abilities)**

Izuku, still hazy from his near suffocation, took a few moments to really comprehend what he was seeing. Then, several thought flew through his head nearly simultaneously.

 _I was saved by All Might? Holy cow, his stats are crazy! But what's with the Status Effect thing, and why is his stamina so low? Wait…_ _ **WHY DOES IT SAY ALL MIGHT HAS NO QUIRK, AND WHAT THE HELL IS A 'RECEIVED QUIRK'?!**_

The end result of these revelations was Izuku with his jaw just about touching the floor and All Might smiling (more like grimacing) back at him, mildly concerned that the boy's behavior was because of some form of brain damage.

"Hey kid, you alright there? Need me to bring you to the hospital?"

Izuku shook his head mutely, still processing everything. _Maybe my quirk is wrong? No, I've scanned people without knowing their quirk and it's been right… so does that mean that All Might wasn't born with his quirk?_

The young Gamer's focus returned to reality as All Might waved a hand in front of his face frantically, sweating, now quite worried about the possibility of brain damage.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine…" It was at that moment that Izuku realized, regardless of any quirk quandaries, that this was the legendary, number one hero All Might of all people, his childhood hero, right in front of him, in the flesh, talking to him.

Suddenly, Izuku was a blur of motion, scrambling back in surprise, stuttering over himself, finally regaining the presence of mind to grab his hero notebook and ask the concerned man for his autograph. All Might sighed in relief as he signed the page, glad the kid was just acting that way because he was star struck and not because he was hurt.

"I apologize that you had to get involved, I was enjoying my day off and didn't quite react quick enough when I found the villain." All Might retrieved a bottle of soda from what looked like a plastic shopping bag, quickly chugging it until it was empty before using it to collect the gloopy pieces of villain that were slowly trying to coalesce into a consolidated whole. "However, I thank you for your assistance. If you had not delayed the villain, he would certainly have gotten away!"

A popup flashed in front of Izuku:

 **Congratulations!**

 **You have earned an assist against a Villain!**

 **Difficulty: Extreme (5 level disadvantage)**

 **Involvement: Low (10% of damage dealt)**

 **Reward: 500 XP x 10 (Difficulty Bonus)** **÷ 3 (Involvement Penalty) = 1667 XP**

 **XP: 7713 / 8700 → 680 / 9800**

This was followed by another popup:

 **Congratulations! You are now Level 12! You have** **10 unspent skill points!**

Izuku shook his head and closed the popups, bringing his attention back to the man who had just saved his life. "Thank you very much, for helping me and for the autograph, I'm a really big fan and I'm really glad to have met you in person and thank you so much for everything and-" He clamped his mouth shut and blushed, he was being a fanboy and embarrassing himself in front of his idol. All Might turned back to him, the villain now collected inside the empty soda bottle. "Alright! I should turn this villain in to the authorities. Thanks again for all of your help."

As the large hero began to limber up, Izuku's face fell. "Wait, you're leaving already? I… I still have things to ask you…" All Might smiled back at him. "I'm sorry, but heroes are always against the clock to stop villains before anyone gets hurt. Now…" He moved out of the tunnel and crouched, sludge-villain securely in his pocket. "I'm off!"

Izuku didn't know why he did it. Maybe he was desperate to hear directly from his idol that he could be a hero, maybe he was still scared from his brush with death and wanted the security that came with proximity to All Might, maybe he was just still rattled from his suffocation and wasn't thinking right. All he knew was that one moment, he was watching All Might crouch, preparing to take off, and the next moment he was clinging onto his leg as the two soared above the city, desperately trying not to fall off.

"Hey! Kid, get off, your fanaticism is starting to get creepy!"

Izuku shook his head. Fighting the air resistance distorting his face, he ground out "I've… got… questions… I want… to ask you…"

All Might sighed and grabbed the kid by the collar so he didn't fall, looking around for somewhere to set down. He grimaced and suppressed a cough, knowing he wasn't going to be able to maintain his One For All form very much longer.

Quickly finding a tall building with an open roof, All Might set down, releasing his grip on the kid's collar. Izuku doubled over, trembling and panting. "Wow… not my best idea… that was scary…"

All Might sighed. "Go on now, kid. The people downstairs will let you out if you ask them. Now, I really don't have time to stay and chat, I have to go."

Izuku perked back up and ran over to All Might. _Shit, he can't go now, this is my last chance to ask!_ "Wait! Please, just tell me. I- my quirk, it's useless against villains, but I want to be a hero! I want to be like you! Is it possible for me to be a hero like you without my quirk?!"

At this, All Might paused. _Without a usable quirk?_ However, right at that moment, a sharp stab of pain shot straight through his abdomen, directly over his scar. _Damn. I can't hold my transformation anymore. I hope this kid is trustworthy…_

Izuku saw All Might double over in pain and start smoking. "All Might, are you ok?!" Izuku was alarmed; he, like many, thought that the number one hero was invincible, and seeing the man in pain without an apparent cause was unnerving. As Izuku considered what he could do to help, the hero was fully enveloped in an explosion of smoke, which cleared away to show…

A small, emaciated man in baggy clothing scowling at him.

Izuku stiffened in surprise. Was _this_ All Might? Izuku scanned the man with his quirk, greatly confused over this turn of events.

 **Name: All Might**

 **Level: 71**

 **Title: Hero**

 **HP: 4086 / 4300**

 **SP: 1322 / 2425**

 **STR: 386 (Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 193**

 **STM: 389 (Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 4** **) = 97**

 **DEX: 330 (Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 165**

 **VIT: 344 (Status Effect Penalty** **÷ 2** **) = 172**

 **INT: 292**

 **WIS: 317**

 **Original Quirk: None**

 **Received Quirk: One For All (Allows usage of One For All abilities)**

 _His quirk bonus is gone, and his stamina is even lower than it was earlier… does One For All drain stamina until he can't maintain his stronger form anymore?_

"So it was right… it's _not_ a natural quirk?" Izuku murmured quietly, not realizing that he was talking out loud. This time, All Might stiffened in shock. "What was that kid? Where did you hear that!?" All Might tried to grab onto Izuku's lapels to shake him, but doubled over in a coughing fit before he could reach him. Izuku stepped back in surprise.

"N...Nothing, I have a quirk that lets me see… er, well, I see how strong people are, and what their quirks are, among other things… it told me you had no quirk originally but received one, but I didn't believe it, except…"

All Might grimaced. At least he was lucky enough to have a chance to talk to the kid before he went around talking about what his quirk uncovered. If he couldn't convince the boy to keep quiet, it could spell the end for the Symbol of Peace.

"A quirk to tell you what _my_ quirk is. Just my luck. Alright kid, I'll explain, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not your mom, not your neighbor, not you best friend, _nobody_. Seriously, this is important."

Izuku nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes, of course, I would never divulge your secrets like that All Might, regardless of your quirk you're still an amazing hero and I wouldn't betray your trust like that."

The number one hero sighed in relief and sat down against the railing. At least it had been an eager-to-please fanboy that had found out and not someone more difficult to shut up. All Might knew he could avoid telling the whole truth, but even divulging this much could be dangerous.

"Alright. It is true that I was not born with this quirk… it was given to me by someone with a quirk that allowed him to transfer quirks to others. I do not know of anyone else he gave quirks to, and he is no longer alive to ask. This quirk, 'One for All', gave me the ability to boost the strength of my muscles to a massive degree when I activated this power. I used it to become the number one hero, but then…"

All Might lifted his shirt, displaying an ugly scar that covered the entire left side of his torso. Izuku sucked in a breath at the ugly sight, before letting out an 'Oh' of understanding when he realized just what the status effect he'd seen in All Might's stats meant. All Might chuckled, then coughed, bringing up another trickle of blood. "Ah. I suppose your quirk told you something about this, then?"

Izuku nodded shakily, unnerved that the number one hero was still number one after suffering such a nasty looking injury. "Not much… it just said that some of your stats were a fraction of what they should be because of a 'status effect', which would be that injury, I suppose."

All Might's eyebrows raised slightly. "Stats? As in video game stats?"

Izuku chuckled and nodded, blushing. "Yea, my quirk makes the world look like a video game to me… it's called the Gamer quirk."

Chuckling again, All Might inquired, "So, what level am I then?"

The young Gamer choked a little on his spit. "W-what?"

Laughing outright and hacking up blood (which alarmed Izuku quite a bit), All Might spread his arms wide. "Did you think I was totally ignorant of video games? I can only work as a hero for three hours a day, I need _something_ to help me pass the time."

Izuku frowned in concern. _Only three hours a day…_ Shaking his head, he returned to All Might's original question. "You're level 71, a good 20 levels above anyone else I've scanned. It's very impressive."

All Might grinned. "Indeed…" His smile faded as he trailed off. "About your question. Heroes risk their lives every time they go into battle. I smile to ward off the fear in my heart every time I put my life on the line, because even being as strong as I am, I may encounter someone who is able to hurt me, to outlast me, to beat me, to _kill_ me. Someone who cannot use their quirk to fight… the danger is too great. I cannot tell you that you can become a hero with your quirk. I'm sorry."

Izuku's head hung down. This was his hero, his idol, telling him that he won't be able to be a hero. The boy grit his teeth, his hands clenching into fists. _Everyone has always told me I couldn't be a hero… so why should this be any different?_ "Everyone has always told me that I'm weak, that I'm quirkless, that I can't be a hero. I never cared what they said, and I don't care what _you_ say. My quirk lets me get stronger, so I'm gonna get stronger. I'm gonna work hard until I'm strong enough to be a hero, and neither you nor anyone else can tell me otherwise. One day, I'm going to be the one saving people with a smile."

Izuku barely registered that he'd switched from thinking to speaking aloud, or that he'd been getting louder. Tears ran down his cheeks as he let out his frustration and anger from years of disparaging remarks, disbelief and pity. "I'm going to be a hero no matter what! I don't care how dangerous it is! I don't care how hard I have to work! I won't let anyone stop me from reaching my dream!"

All Might stared at the boy… the young man… whose eyes were shining with a fire that he'd only ever seen once before, in the eyes that stared back at him in the mirror. _Perhaps…_

But time was running short. He would think on this more at another time. He still needed to bring the villain to the police…

 _Wait, the villain!_ All Might checked his pockets, but couldn't find the bottle anywhere. _Damn! It must have slipped out when I was dealing with the kid!_

Izuku saw All Might check his pockets, and his eyes widened, realizing the same thing that All Might did. Suddenly, both of their eyes were drawn to a large cloud of smoke rising in the distance. _Shit!_

 **A/N: Right now, things are following canon pretty close, but that's mostly because of the events leading up to Izuku getting One for All (he has to be in that tunnel to get attacked, he has to get attacked to meet All Might, he has to cling to All Might to talk with him about his dream and for the villain to get loose, etc.) Things'll start to get more interesting and more independent of canon in a couple chapters. Thanks for reading, and feel free to flame.**


	3. Chapter 3

Izuku and All Might arrived at the scene, panting hard. Izuku was low on stamina because he hadn't yet recovered from the sludge-villain's attack; All Might was low because he hadn't yet recovered from using his Hero form to its limit. The scene they saw as they arrived was grim.

Civilians were running in all directions, frantically trying to escape the fire that seemed to be burning everything in sight. In the epicenter of the chaos, the very same sludge villain that had escaped All Might was staring down the team of heroes that had responded to the emergency, a child in its slimy grasp. As they arrived, a series of explosions went off near the villain, blowing the heroes back and causing more fires nearby. Izuku paled. _Oh no… did the villain grab Kacchan?_

Izuku's eyes flitted around the scene. _Backdraft is containing the fire, Kamui is grabbing civilians, Death Arms and Mt. Lady look like they want to help but can't, and those two small time heroes don't look like they know how to deal with this; they must be new… the villain keeps redirecting Kacchan's explosions towards the heroes, so he can probably ward them off if they charge at him…_ Izuku quickly scanned the stats of every hero present to get an idea of their abilities. _Backdraft is dextrous, Kamui is well rounded, Death Arms is strong and sturdy, Mt. Lady has high physical stats but can't fit in the alley here, the bird-masked hero is only level 23 but has a flight quirk, and the hero with the orange hair is level 28, has control over the wind and decent stamina..._

As Izuku took stock of the situation, All Might grimaced. _None of the heroes here are strong enough to beat this villain, not with his unusual quirk and his hostage's explosions keeping them back. Backdraft could do something because his quirk can be used at range, but the fire may go out of control if he tries to fight. I could do something… if…_ He gripped the scar that was holding him back. _If I weren't so weak!_

Izuku, as he did in many circumstances, refused to give up. _None of the heroes can do anything alone, but a combination attack might work… Backdraft can't be used, but Death Arms has a high enough strength that he could save Kacchan if he had a good grip and something to brace against, and Kamui can dig into the ground to provide that support… he'd be at risk from the fire, but he could do it from farther back and stay relatively safe... but for Death Arms to get to Kacchan he would need to get close to the villain, well within the range of Kacchan's quirk, and the villain would just redirect Kacchan's attacks to ward him off again._

Izuku looked around for anything that could help the two heroes close the distance. _The only two options are to block the explosions or to distract the villain so that the heroes can get close without getting hit._ Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything that would serve as a suitable distraction, and even if there were, how would Izuku communicate this strategy to the two key players? Izuku watched, helpless, as Kamui climbed the side of the nearby building to get civilians out of harm's way, far from where Izuku could get his attention. Things seemed bleak.

 _Wait, that small time hero could fly, I can use him to pass a message!_ But still, no distraction was forthcoming. None of the heroes would be able to keep his attention for long because of how little damage they could actually do to the villain. But if nobody could distract him with a physical threat… _Wait! The distraction wouldn't necessarily have to pose a threat..._

 **Congratulations! You have discovered the skill "Taunt"!**

 _They would just have to piss the villain off!_

Izuku stepped forward, intending to take off towards the front of the crowd, when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Kid! What are you doing! Stay here!" All Might wasn't about to let this hero-hopeful run into danger.

Izuku stopped short, eyes wide, his memory of All Might's words coming back to him. _I cannot tell you that you can become a hero with your quirk._ He looked back at his idol's gaunt, tired face, before looking forward again at Kacchan, struggling against the slimy menace that had been freed by his foolish decision to grab onto All Might's leg. His resolve hardened as Kacchan's eyes looked out into the crowd, eyes filled with anger and more than a little fear. Izuku turned back to the hero beside him.

"I can't just stand by and let this happen! I can help, I _know_ I can help, and I'm not going to stand here and watch when I can _do_ something!" Izuku wrenched his arm from All Might's slackened grip and took off through the crowd, All Might's wide eyes following him. _So much courage. So much determination._..

Izuku made it to the front of the crowd, yelling to catch the attention of Death Arms and the hero with the flight quirk. "Hey! Flight hero, go get Kamui up there, I know how you guys can win!" The two heroes looked behind them, baffled. _This kid has a plan? He shouldn't even be here, it's dangerous._

Izuku waited a moment, but the flying hero stayed firmly on the ground. Izuku grimaced in anger, shouting this time. "We've got no time for this! If you want to save his life-" Izuku thrust his hand at Kacchan, who appeared to be succumbing to the suffocation technique that the sludge villain had used against Izuku, "-please, go get Kamui!"

Startled by the kid's intensity, the flying hero took off, landing on the building where Kamui was perched. "There's a kid down there that says he has a plan, I don't know what he's got, but anything is better than sitting here doing nothing."

Kamui looked down at the crowd, seeing a green haired kid talking to Death Arms and glancing up at Kamui periodically with wide, begging eyes. Turning back to the lesser known hero, Kamui nodded. "Keep an eye on these guys up here, I'll see what he's got."

Dropping down, Kamui looked between the kid and Death Arms. "So?"

Izuku spoke as quickly as he could while still being coherent, one eye fixed to the struggling form of Kacchan slowly being enveloped in sludge. "You use your quirk to dig into the ground and provide something physical for Death Arms to brace on, and Death Arms uses his strength to pull the hostage out of the villain. The villain has to be distracted though, so make sure he's not paying attention to you before you go."

Kamui and Death Arms blinked in confusion. "Distracted? What do you mean- hey!" But that moment of confusion was all Izuku needed. He took off towards the villain at a full sprint, catching the sludge creature's eye.

"Hey, you overgrown pile of sewage! Remember me! It's the one that got away! Your quirk is so weak, a middle schooler got away from it, and now another one is going to as well!" The villain growled as Izuku drew close, manipulating its hostage to direct Bakugo's explosions towards the newcomer. Izuku picked up a fallen billboard nearby and used it as a makeshift shield to block the explosions. _Looks like the taunts are working, now I just need to keep its attention on me!_

"And what is it with middle schoolers, anyway? What are you, some sort of pedophile? Only interested in 14 year old boys, huh?" Izuku lobbed his bag over his shield as hard as he could, nailing the villain in the eyes and stunning him. "Look at that, you useless blob, I'm basically quirkless and I'm still able to hurt you!" Izuku took the opportunity granted by his throw to run past the villain, reaching the other side of the alley so that the villain's back would be to the heroes.

 **Congratulations! Your skill "Taunt" has increased to LVL 2!**

"You little shit! I'm going to kill you!" The villain once again directed an explosion towards the boy, creating a dangerous concussive force. Izuku didn't have a sign to grab this time, though, and resorted to crossing his arms in front of his face. His defense did little, however, and the explosive force sent him tumbling backwards, hitting his head against the ground hard. The world spun, and Izuku could hear a ringing in his ears. _Just a little longer and Kacchan will be free…_

Izuku scrambled back to his feet and grabbed some fiery debris near him, wincing as the heat licked at his hands. He flung his makeshift weaponry at the sludge villain, failing to hit him but keeping his attention on him. "I bet-" Izuku's mind went fuzzy as he attempted to taunt the villain, and he was forced to shake it off before he could continue. _Shit, I think I have a concussion. It's probably bringing my WIS down…_

"I bet I don't even need any help to beat you this time! You just caught me off guard before, now I've got the upper hand because I had time to plan!" Izuku continued to throw fiery debris at the villain, ignoring the blisters that were beginning to develop on his hands.

 **Congratulations! Your skill "Throw" has increased to LVL 4!**

"Enough! I've had enough of you, you little fucking brat! I'm going to turn you into paste with this kid's quirk! I'm going to- Argh!"

Suddenly, two large hands sprouted from the front of the villain's body, closing around the middle schooler trapped within and retreating just as quickly. The villain collapsed for a moment, a giant hole in his middle where a body had been previously, before coalescing and turning to face the heroes that had just stolen his host. Izuku turned and tried to run, but a bout of dizziness struck and he went down hard. _Shit! I can't get out of here! It's only a matter of time before the villain-_

However, before he knew what was happening, he was no longer lying on the ground. Two arms held him around his chest as his legs dangled in mid-air. "Don't worry, you crazy kid, I've got you."

Izuku looked up at the bird-shaped mask of his savior, briefly registering that the flying hero had rescued him before his eyes fluttered closed.

…

All Might could only watch as this boy, this functionally quirkless boy, coordinated with pro heroes to save the hostage that the villain had taken. He'd been so shocked at the boy's behavior and strategy, he didn't react when the boy was knocked to the ground. He should have stepped in, should have forced himself to use One For All to defeat the villain as he had before, but he had been entranced as the fearless middle schooler had danced around the sludge villain, returning to his feet even after being knocked down and continuing to fight back with nothing but guts and thrown debris.

When he went down for the second time, All Might was jolted out of his trance and _tried_ to help the boy, but the small time hero had beaten him to it. Relief and shame warred within him, relief that he would not be bedridden because he overused his quirk, shame that he had stood back and done _nothing_ to help. _I was too caught up in my helplessness, my inability to be strong, that I didn't even bother to try to help by strategizing. I'm too used to simply overpowering villains, and I didn't know how to respond to a situation where I couldn't do that._

 _That kid… he didn't have much at his disposal, but he used it well. He was heroic to a fault, almost sacrificing himself to make sure the hostage was freed. I don't think I could have found a better candidate to inherit One For All._

All Might watched as Izuku was brought over to an ambulance. He looked beat up, but the impressive power of healing quirks available at the hospital would be more than enough to deal with his injuries. The number 1 hero noted which hospital the boy was going to be treated at, so that he could talk with him after he was discharged. _You were right, kid. You'll be a hero some day, and nobody will ever be able to tell you otherwise._

…

Izuku awoke to the plain, sterile environment of a hospital room. His head ached a bit, and his hands felt unusually stiff, but otherwise he felt fine.

 **Congratulations!**

 **You have earned an assist against a Villain!**

 **Difficulty: Extreme (5 level disadvantage)**

 **Involvement: Medium (10%, 25% of damage dealt)**

 **Bonus: Hostage Rescued**

 **Reward: 600 XP x 10 (Difficulty Bonus)** **÷ 2 (Involvement Penalty) = 3000 XP**

 **XP: 680 / 9800 → 3680 / 9800**

The notification jogged his memory of the day's events. His two encounters with the same villain, working with Kamui and Death Arms to free Kacchan, and All Might…

He grimaced, remembering All Might's words. _He doesn't believe in me, just like everyone else._ Izuku looked down, dejected, but grinned a bit anyway. _Not that that stopped me from helping save Kacchan._

Izuku perked up suddenly, his thoughts about All Might reminding him that he'd leveled up during his first fight with the villain. Pulling up his stats menu, Izuku took a moment to decide what to spend his new skill points on.

 **Name: Izuku Midoriya**

 **Level: 12**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **HP: 2035 / 2100**

 **SP: 2250 / 2250**

 **STR: 87**

 **STM: 90**

 **DEX: 94**

 **VIT: 84**

 **INT: 101**

 **WIS: 115**

 **Unspent Skill Points: 10**

 **Quirk: The Gamer (Provides the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body Abilities)**

 _Hm… when the villain first found me, I would have been able to escape if I'd had more DEX, and being able to escape or dodge a stronger opponent is very helpful…_ Izuku put three points into Dexterity. _I was also concussed pretty easily from that one bad fall…_ He put two into VIT. _My WIS is the main reason I was able to help Kacchan…_ Another two were put into WIS. _And I have three more points for my three remaining stats._ He put one point into STR, STM and INT.

 **Name: Izuku Midoriya**

 **Level: 12**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **HP: 2035 / 2100**

 **SP: 2250 / 2250**

 **STR: 88**

 **STM: 91**

 **DEX: 97**

 **VIT: 86**

 **INT: 102**

 **WIS: 117**

 **Quirk: The Gamer (Provides the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body Abilities)**

Izuku smiled, happy to have leveled up. He didn't earn XP very often; he didn't get into fights, and only got occasional XP boosts from 'achievements' like graduating elementary school, so leveling up was a rare treat. It had been over a year since he'd last leveled up, but now he'd not only reached level 12, he was almost a third of the way to level 13. _And all I had to do was nearly get murdered by a villain, then rush into danger, get a concussion and nearly get murdered again._

His thoughts were interrupted when the door to his hospital room opened and the doctor walked in, followed by the young Gamer's wide-eyed, worried mother. "Izuku! What were you thinking, rushing into danger like that! When the police knocked on my door and said you were in the hospital because you fought a villain, I nearly had a heart attack!" Ignoring the doctor's protests, Inko Midoriya strode over and crushed Izuku in a hug, tears of worry in her eyes.

Sighing, the doctor shook her head and looked at the boy's chart. "Well, how are you feeling Izuku? Any lingering pain?" The boy nodded a bit, still in his mother's grasp. "I still have a bit of a headache, and my hands feel kind of stiff, but other than that I'm fine."

The doctor nodded. "The headache will likely clear up in the next two hours. Concussions are more difficult to heal than other injuries, even with the quirks at the Hospital's disposal, but we did minimize the damage and reduce the chance of lasting symptoms. If the headache hasn't cleared up by tomorrow, come back for a follow up. Your hands are stiff because of the new skin we grew over the burn areas; it'll stretch out over the next day. If you're feeling alright, I can sign the discharge papers now."

Izuku nodded, eager to leave the sterile confines of his room.

…

The gaunt form of All Might loitered around the patient discharge area of the hospital, reading to pass the time. He didn't know where the boy lived, so if he didn't catch him for a conversation here it would be difficult to find him again. It had only been a couple of hours, so All Might was expecting he would have to wait awhile longer to see the boy, but to his surprise he caught a shock of green hair exiting the door from his peripheral vision. _Huh. I guess his injuries weren't as bad as I thought, that's good._

All Might stowed his novel in a back pocket and moved toward the boy, who, he noticed, was walking alongside someone. _Probably his mother. She'd be worried about him after that stunt he pulled._

When Izuku caught sight of him, he stopped, eyes widening, before frowning and turning away from him. All Might frowned too, concerned at the boy's reaction to him. _Is he upset about my trying to stop him from going after the villain, or about my saying it was too dangerous for him to become a hero?_

Inko noticed her son's behavior, before looking over and seeing All Might making his way over. Frowning slightly, she turned to face him. "Can we help you, sir?"

Nodding, All Might moved into Izuku's line of sight. "I'd like to speak to your son for a moment, if you wouldn't mind."

Inko, seeing Izuku continue to avoid the stranger's eye, shook her head. "It looks like Izuku doesn't want to speak with you, so I do mind. We should be on our way now, Izuku needs his rest."

All Might was undeterred. "Are you sure, Izuku? You'll like what I have to say. You impressed me today, and I have a proposition for you." Izuku perked up a bit, and finally looked his idol in the eyes. He didn't know what to think about the proposition, but the fact that he had impressed All Might with his strategy against the villain meant that, just maybe, he would finally have someone's support in pursuit of his dream. _And not just anyone, I'll have the support of the number 1 hero!_ Izuku's excitement was slowly building with just those few words from his idol. "Sure, I'll talk with you All- er, alright."

Izuku's abrupt change in attitude confused Inko quite a bit, but if he wanted to talk with the stranger now, she supposed he could. Clearly they had spoken about something in the past. "Alright Izuku, but I wasn't lying about you needing rest. Try to make it quick."

Nodding again, Izuku followed All Might a short way, until they were out of earshot. "You did well out there, kid. Better than well, actually, you were able to use what you had at your disposal to win where pro heroes weren't able to. There are kids with potential, and then there's you.

"I like to think I'm skilled as a hero, but even I felt helpless faced with that situation. I was too used to thinking and strategizing from a position of power, being able to use my strength to solve any problem and defeat any villain. I didn't even consider stepping in without my quirk at my disposal. But you did, and you _beat the villain_." He smiled. "That's one more villain under your belt than I had before I received One For All. You're on track to beat my record."

Izuku smiled. "Well, I'm not lucky enough to get a quirk like that as a gift like you did, so I think your record is going to stand for awhile longer."

All Might's smile widened. "Don't be so sure of that, Izuku. I wasn't entirely honest when I told you about my quirk. I wasn't given this quirk by someone with the ability to transfer quirks. That person directly gave me _their_ quirk. And just like him, I have the ability to pass on that quirk to another person."

Izuku's breath caught in his throat, his mouth falling open in shock. _Is he saying…!_

"That's right Izuku. I've decided that _you_ will inherit One For All. You rushed into danger and put yourself at risk to save another; those are the instincts of a hero. You deserve to inherit my power because you will put it to better use than I or any other user of One For All could. You were right when you told me that you would be a hero and that nobody could stop you. I saw that in your determination today. That is why I will help you on your journey, if you wish. It's up to you, of course."

Tears formed in Izuku's eyes. _Not only does he believe in my dream… he's going to help make it a reality. He's going to pass his quirk on to me and give me the power to be a hero._ Trembling and overcome with emotion, the young Gamer bowed low to the gaunt man. "Thank you! Thank you so much! I accept!"

All Might nodded at his new protégé, still smiling. "You will not be able to use One For All just yet. Your body is not strong enough to handle it. I will help train you until you are strong enough to handle the power granted by it. Meet me at Dagoba Municipal Beach tomorrow at 7:00 to begin your training."

Izuku nodded, bowing again. "I'll be there!"

All Might continued to smile, watching Izuku rejoin his mother to head home. _He will be great someday soon. He will surpass me in every way. I'll see to it._

 **A/N: I've had an unusually empty schedule these past couple of weeks, which is why I could update as fast as I have been. Since the unusual schedule is gonna stop next week, my next updates will probably be slower, but fear not, because I will continue working on the story regularly.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Uh, kid, I said 7:00, right? I haven't even decided how to train you yet…"

All Might's gaunt form sweat dropped in front of Izuku, who chuckled and blushed. "W-well, I was eager to get started… I mean, this is my dream come true, after all."

The current owner of One For All tapped his watch. "That doesn't mean you should show up an hour early though…" He sighed. "Well, since you're here, I suppose I can talk to you about your training.

"The Yuuei entrance exam is in ten months; in those months, I need to train you until you are strong enough to wield One For All." He paused. "Hmmm… your quirk allows you to quantify stats like Strength, don't they?" Izuku nodded. "Alright then. What is your current Strength stat, and what is mine?"

Izuku scanned All Might and checked his own stats. "I'm at 88 Strength, and you have a base Strength of 386… your injury cuts that in half, leaving you with 193 Strength, and when you activate your stronger form, your stats are multiplied by 8, which gives you…" he took a moment to do the math in his head, "...1544 Strength."

All Might nodded. "Alright. Because I do not have your quirk, I cannot tell the exact amount of Strength that is necessary to use One For All without injury. You require enough Strength to handle the increased power provided by One For All, and we know that 193 Strength is enough for _me_ to handle that power without injury.

"However, each successive user of One For All receives additional power from the previous user, meaning that you will likely need more strength than that to handle One For All without injury, although around 200 will likely be enough that you do not permanently injure yourself. That is still more than double what you currently possess, so I will need to push you to the limit to grow your Strength enough to handle One For All by the time of the entrance exam."

Izuku nodded. "Alright. I can gain plenty of Strength from training, but the easiest way to boost my strength significantly in a short time would be for me to level up multiple times. I gain 10 skill points to allocate as I see fit every level, and leveling up is relatively easy at low levels because almost any kind of battle provides a sizeable amount of XP. I wouldn't want to neglect my other stats just to build Strength enough to use One For All, but I could allocate 4 or 5 points to strength per level and increase my strength fairly rapidly. There's only one problem…"

All Might nodded, catching the boy's train of thought. "Indeed. How would you get involved in these battles to gain XP? You were injured fighting the sludge villain, and he was a relatively tame villain compared to some that I have had to fight. I couldn't allow you to fight villains before you are ready in good conscience, and we both know you are not ready. Do you know of any other ways you can earn XP?"

Izuku frowned in thought. "Other than getting into fights and unlocking achievements, I don't get XP. Achievements provide a lot of XP, but they're usually related to life milestones or things like that, so I don't think we'll be able to use those to build up XP. That leaves fighting, but going out and attacking villains isn't exactly conducive to my health…"

A beat of silence passed, then All Might straightened up, grinned, and shifted into his stronger form. "You will spar with me to gain XP, then!"

Izuku's eyebrows raised at the idea. "I don't know if that'll work, but it can't hurt to try." Izuku settled into a fighting stance as All Might stood straight, ready to receive his trainee's attack. Izuku rushed forward, knowing that no matter how much he might strategize, he wouldn't be able to so much as scratch the hero in front of him. _Better to fight hard right away than wasting time, this is meant for me to get stronger and sitting around won't do that._

The young Gamer lead with a straight right, aiming for All Might's solar plexus. The significantly stronger and faster hero knocked the fist aside, otherwise staying perfectly still. Izuku threw his body weight forward, using his momentum to thrust an elbow strike at All Might in place of his failed punch. The unorthodox maneuver tripped the hero up a bit, and the blow landed with a dull thunk. All Might bent forward slightly, more surprised than actually hurt, and shoved Izuku away. The boy was sent flying several feet back, tumbling across the ground before returning to his feet and charging again.

The spar continued in this manner for fifteen minutes; Izuku would attack, All Might would respond while staying firmly planted in one place, Izuku would occasionally land an ineffective hit that he'd thought up on the fly, and All Might would attempt to push, throw or knock Izuku away, succeeding for the most part. Soon enough, Izuku was panting heavily, and All Might put up his hand to call a stop to the fight.

Izuku perked up at the popup that appeared in front of him.

 **Spar Length: 15 minutes**

 **Intensity: High (5 XP per minute)**

 **Reward: 75 XP**

 **XP: 3680 / 9800 → 3755 / 9800**

"Cool, that spar was worth 75 XP for me…" he paused, panting. "It's not nearly as much as I got for fighting those villains... but I guess that makes sense, since it's not real combat experience. I'll still level up a lot before the entrance exam if we spar like that regularly. I'll level up after another…" he paused, doing the math, "...1209 minutes of sparring at that level… so around 20 hours of sparring total…"

All Might nodded. "We shall make sure to spar daily to help you level up before the entrance exam. If we spar for an hour or two a day, it may be possible to get you to Level 20 in those 10 months before the entrance exam."

Izuku grimaced. "I think different levels of sparring intensity are worth different amounts of experience per minute, so I would have to maintain the level I was just as to earn that amount of experience… I'm not sure I could maintain that for a full hour, let alone two…" He checked his stamina. "...Yea, that spar ate over ½ of my stamina reserves in those 15 minutes. I'd pass out before the half-hour mark."

Despite Izuku's pessimism, All Might's smile widened, and he gained a gleam in his eye. "Ah, that is a problem. I suppose we will have to improve your stamina then, yes?" Izuku, wary of the look his mentor was giving him, nodded hesitantly. "Well then, let's start now! You shall clean this beach by hand as your training to improve your strength and stamina. Now, get going! I don't want to see your stamina go above 50% for the rest of the day!"

For the rest of the day, Izuku was run ragged. He lifted, carted and dragged garbage of every size and shape, using everything as makeshift exercise equipment. By the end of the day, his stamina meter was hovering around 10%, and Izuku's eyes were droopy, but he'd increased his STR and VIT by a point and his STM by two. _I guess working at your limit for a long time is good for your stamina… I hope I can keep this up though, I feel like I may drop dead any minute here._

All Might looked around at the area that Izuku's work had cleared. _Impressive. He worked hard the entire time, and made more progress than I expected. I think I have his quirk to thank for that; he's able to lift more and work longer between breaks because of his abnormally high stats. Not to mention the fact that he was willing to continue working, despite working to exhaustion over and over._ All Might's ever present grin widened. _Truly, I have made the best choice possible for a successor. He will surpass me in every way, and much sooner than I could have hoped._

…

Thus began Izuku's preparations for the Yuuei entrance exam. Every day after school, Izuku would spar with All Might for as long as he could, before spending a couple of hours removing trash from the beach; on weekends, he'd spend a good portion of his free time at the beach, sparring with All Might multiple times and clearing even more trash. His XP climbed steadily; it only took him until the end of the first month to level up the first time, and by the 6 month mark he had reached level 16. The increased XP requirements at each new level were partially balanced out by the fact that Izuku's steadily rising STM was allowing him to spar for longer and gain more XP.

In addition to his level, Izuku's physical stats were increasing at an unprecedented rate. Izuku didn't know his stats _could_ grow that fast before. The constant heavy lifting was increasing his STR considerably, and running to the truck while weighed down with garbage helped improve his DEX. What surprised him most was his STM and VIT, however; apparently, continually exerting yourself while below 25% STM caused those stats to grow ridiculously quickly. Izuku quickly decided that he didn't need to use the skill points he earned on those stats; they'd keep up with his other physical stats without even receiving that supplement.

Izuku was disappointed to see that his stats were gradually taking longer to increase as he improved them. He'd never improved them fast enough to notice before, but it seemed that even though his Gamer's Body allowed him to improve his stats indefinitely, he still had to suffer through the diminishing returns to a certain degree.

In addition to his great physical improvements, Izuku was also training himself mentally. Every day at school was spent at attention, as was necessary to ensure he would pass the written portion of the entrance exam. Most of his free time was taken up by either independent study and logic/reasoning puzzles, to improve his INT, or some of his old split-second quirk and battle analysis (now from the comfort of his own home, watching heroes and villains battle online) as well as fast paced strategy games to improve his WIS.

Between the school work, physical training and extracurricular brain training, Izuku had expected to be dead tired at school every day. Surprisingly, however, Izuku learned that his quirk had some subtle, impressive benefits. He knew he recovered fully from most injuries or maladies after a decent night's sleep, but he hadn't realized how beneficial it would be at first. Then, he'd gone to sleep with an ache that felt like it was centered in his very bones, and woken up the next day feeling like the pain had just been a dream. Unlike most people, who would be sore for days after a workout that ran them into the ground, Izuku was able to work at 100% day after day without consequence.

His Gamer's Body ability wasn't the only ability that was benefiting him in his extreme training regime. Izuku hadn't realized, but his Gamer's Mind ability was helpful against more psychological maladies than just fear and pain - namely, exhaustion. Izuku fell into his bed each night at almost midnight, his afternoon and evening being consumed by physical training, mental exercises, dinner, nightly ablutions and homework, but by 6:00 the next day he was up and ready to take on the world.

He learned from trial and error that he'd start to suffer from a sleep deprivation status effect if he didn't get a solid 6 hours each night, but even then it wasn't nearly as severe as he would've expected. These abilities allowed Izuku to push himself far past any limits that a normal person might suffer, helping him as he worked harder than he'd ever worked in his life to reach his goal.

Izuku stared out at the perfectly clean beach in front of him, his body glistening with sweat from the last push he'd put in to clear out the rest of the garbage. After just 6 of the 10 months before the entrance exam, the young gamer had already finished the task set forth by his mentor. He felt good- great, even, like he could go out and take on the world. He sat down, grinning to himself as he opened his stat menu to gauge his progress.

 **Name: Izuku Midoriya**

 **Level: 16**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **HP: 3950 / 3950**

 **SP: 1179 / 4175**

 **STR: 170**

 **STM: 167**

 **DEX: 145**

 **VIT: 158**

 **INT: 154**

 **WIS: 165**

 **Quirk: The Gamer (Provides the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body Abilities)**

Izuku was immensely proud of the progress he was making. His inhuman training, combined with the benefits of his quirk, had put his stats on par with professional heroes twice his age and level (and his level was almost on par with the levels of entry level pro heroes).

Without a quirk, Izuku would still be a fair distance from achieving his goal, requiring stats far exceeding others' to put up a meaningful fight. However, the gift that All Might was planning on giving him would be enough to catapult the young Gamer to the level of a pro hero, and the training he'd receive at Yuuei would cement his place as All Might's successor.

Izuku was drawn from his thoughts as he felt a hand ruffle his hair. He looked up and smiled at the newcomer, whose own characteristic smile was wider than usual at the sight of the clean beach.

"Very well done, Izuku." All Might turned his attention back to the pristine beach before the two of them. "You've far exceeded my most optimistic hopes for a successor, in strength of body, strength of will, and strength of character. I couldn't have chosen a better student."

The two were quiet for a moment, taking in the view.

"Tell me, Izuku, what is your Strength stat now?"

"I'm at 170, All Might sensei."

The hero nodded. "I am able to use One For All at full power without injury at under 200 Strength. I do not know how high your Strength will have to be for you to use One For All to its full potential, but I believe 170 Strength is more than enough for you to begin learning to use part of its power. If you accidentally activate it fully, it shouldn't cause any permanent damage, and you should be able to use it at half power or quarter power without sustaining any injuries."

Izuku's eyes widened, realizing what All Might was proposing. "You're saying… you want to give me One For All now?" All Might nodded, widening his ever-present smile. Izuku was speechless. This was it… today was the day that Izuku had been waiting for, hoping for, since he could remember. When All Might agreed to train him, his dream of becoming a hero had become a goal, an aspiration, but Izuku had always doubted, always feared that All Might would change his mind or that something would happen to prevent his dream from coming true. Today, however, would truly bridge the gap between his hopes and reality.

"Now…" All Might held up a single strand of his hair. "Eat this."

 **A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter, but I felt like this was a good stopping point.** **As I expected, my schedule was chock full these last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me, and I haven't had time to work on this much. My schedule has opened up a bit, however, so I'll be able to write a bit more often now (unfortunately, it still won't be as fast as those first three chapters were, but that was the product of a really unusual amount of free time).**

 **Anyway, I just have to thank everyone for the stupendous amount of support. I'm just flabbergasted at the number of favorites and follows, and it makes me feel good to know that you guys are enjoying my work.**

 **I've still not gotten any flames, though. Remember guys, I enjoy flames, so feel free to send some my way.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm just speechless. This fic is the 40-something-th most followed Academia fic, and the 50-something-th most favorited, and it got there in all of 2 months. You guys have favorited and followed this thing literally by the hundreds. I can't thank you enough for your support, so I'm just going to express it by putting out the best writing I can. You guys are awesome.**

Bakugo glared suspiciously at the at the green-haired annoyance who was currently staring off into space, seemingly lost in thought. The blond hothead was impulsive, but he wasn't stupid or oblivious; Deku had changed drastically in the last couple of months, but that wasn't concerning to him. What was concerning was the truly _massive_ change that had just happened to the useless kid. The boy had been happier and more confident leading up to that point, but now he seemed fairly _glowing_ about something. Bakugo supposed that something had happened yesterday.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Deku was _Deku_ , the useless, quirkless nobody that was desperately hoping for an impossible dream. He was supposed to be realizing that his dream was impossible, that only those with quirks could become heroes, that strength required good genes and innate talent. The little dope shouldn't still be _hopeful_ , not with the Yuuei entrance exam just a few months away. Something was off, and Katsuki was going to get to the bottom of it.

The hero aspirant decided he'd follow the green-haired annoyance, if only to figure out how to disillusion him of his ridiculous dream once and for all. So, instead of following his friends to go hang out after school, he stuck around, waiting for Deku to slowly gather up his crap and leave. Bakugo had no trouble following the distracted boy without being seen, staying a half block back from him as they both made their way across town at Deku's frustratingly sluggish pace.

Finally, the two arrived at Dagoba Municipal Beach. _What's up with the beach? Last time I was here, it was a shithole from one end to the other. Did someone clean it or something?_ Bakugo remained at the edge of the beach, unable to follow Deku any farther without being out in the open. Bakugo suddenly caught movement out of the corner of his eye, seeing a gaunt, almost skeletal man plodding down the beach towards Izuku. _Wow, he looks like shit, but the fuck is this chemo patient doing with Deku?_

The man approached the quirkless kid, smiling slightly and murmuring something too quiet for Bakugo to hear. Izuku nodded, and proceeded to remove his shirt, facing the ocean before him. _What the fuck… is this creep some kind of pedo? I might have to go down there and-_

That was as far as he got, before his was rendered mentally speechless by Izuku. Specifically, by the massive wave of power that started to roll off of him. Lines formed across Izuku's exposed skin, the muscles underneath bulging with a massive influx of power. The boy shifted his foot backwards and cocked his arm as far back as he could, letting out a great, bellowing yell. The power pulsed a moment, gathering in the primed arm, before Izuku drove it forward with as much force as he could.

Wind and sand whipped around Bakugo as he watched, incredulous, as the ocean parted before the weak, timid, useless Deku. _How… how is he that strong… he's not supposed to be strong, he's supposed to be weak. There's no way he could possibly be that strong, he's quirkless! He's not supposed to be stronger than me! I'm supposed to be the strongest!_

Izuku, oblivious to the incredulity and anger growing behind him, examined his arm. It was an angry red, showing a lot of bruising. He lowered his arm and winced hard as his shoulder gave off a sharp pain. It seemed to be dislocated, having been stressed by the significant force of his impressive punch.

 **Status Effect: Dislocated Shoulder (-20% DEX, -10% STR, arm usage causes more damage)**

 **Congratulations! You have discovered the skill "Detroit Smash"!**

The new wielder of One For All's grimace turned upward, and he quickly opened the ability's description to read more about it.

 **Detroit Smash - LVL 1: The user uses the power granted from One For All to unleash a massive punch, which creates pressure waves that can hit opponents even from a range. Strength increases the force of the punch as well as the force and range of the pressure wave. Dexterity increases the speed and accuracy of the pressure wave. Deals standard One For All self damage. Significant damage may cause status effects.**

Izuku checked his health and, indeed, using the move had dealt a solid 350 damage to him. _Damn, that's pretty dangerous to use in combat. Between the debuff and the lost health, I could put myself at a serious disadvantage if my attack doesn't put my opponent down or if there are multiple opponents._

"HOW THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT DEKU!"

The young Gamer turned at the shout, only for a blur to slam into him and tackle him to the ground. Bakugo cocked his arm back above Izuku, his open palm releasing small explosions because of the blond's anger.

"TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK THAT WAS RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE FUCKING USELESS, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO BE THAT POWERFUL!"

Izuku looked between the enraged Kacchan, the explosive hand hovering above him threateningly, and his wide-eyed and nervous mentor for a moment before bringing his uninjured arm up and shoving his childhood friend off of him, instinctively adding a bit of One For All enhancement to the blow. Bakugo was sent tumbling backwards across the sand.

 **Congratulations! You have-**

Izuku ignored the message, waving it away as he got to his feet, only for it to blink back into existence a second later.

 **Congratulations! Y-**

 _What? Why is it back?_ Izuku dismissed the message again, wondering if it would reappear a third time. When it didn't, he brought his attention back to his childhood friend. _Oh crap, I powered that up, did it hurt him?_ He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Kacchan get to his feet, but tensed up again as the boy leveled a heated glare at his former friend.

"Goddammit, Deku… you're not stronger than me… you're NOT! How the FUCK are you doing that!? Is it some sort of trick!? TELL ME!"

Izuku grimaced internally. He couldn't tell Kacchan the truth for obvious reasons, and ignoring the question would likely just incite the blond to attack, so he'd have to come up with some kind of lie to satisfy his curiosity without giving anything away.

"I have a unique genetic defect that left part of my quirk dormant much longer than usual, even after the first part, the Gamer quirk, activated when I was four. He-" Izuku nodded at All Might, whose sunken eyes were shifting back and forth between the two boys uncertainly, "-is my doctor, the one who discovered the dormant component of my quirk and figured out that physical fitness could activate it. I only got it working yesterday, and he's here to help me through any side effects from unlocking and using the quirk."

Bakugo sneered at the two. "Really? That much power was just _dormant_ for you, and you just happened to unlock it yesterday? Do you really expect me to believe that pile of horseshit?"

All Might turned toward Bakugo fully at this. "It's entirely true. I am young Midoriya's doctor, Dr. Toshinori Yagi, and I've been helping him through this unusual problem of his. Now, if you have no further plans to assault my patient, I must tend to the damage that Midoriya's arm suffered from his new ability. Please leave me to my work, I'm sure Midoriya can fill you in later."

All Might moved to Izuku and began examining his arm to keep up appearances, even producing a small first aid kit from his pocket that he'd brought along in case Izuku's usage of the quirk caused him any major injuries. Bakugo watched them for a moment, uncertain, before snarling and spinning around to stalk away. "This isn't over, Deku. You owe me a fucking explanation."

The hero and his protégé held up the act until the blond was out of sight, before sagging and sighing in relief. All Might was the first to speak. "Wow, I must be losing my touch if I didn't notice him following you. I apologize."

Izuku shook his head. "No, I was the one that should have noticed him, he isn't exactly the most subtle person. I just had my head in the clouds because of this…"

All Might shrugged, before turning his attention back to the boy's arm. "You really did a number on yourself with that punch though. That probably hurts quite a bit. Let me fix that up for you." The hero grabbed the Gamer's arm with one hand and his shoulder with the other. "When you're ready."

Izuku nodded, before grunting in pain as All Might pulled his arm to reset his shoulder. He rubbed his now properly seated shoulder, smiling at his mentor in thanks. All Might glanced at Izuku's other arm and blinked, his brow crinkling. "How is your other arm? It looked like you used One For All to push that boy off of you."

Izuku looked at his mostly uninjured arm as well, curious. _I did use One For All, I think… but it isn't dislocated like my other arm, only a bit sore._ The boy blinked for a moment, remembering the new ability that he'd ignored earlier. _Maybe that'll explain it._ He pulled up his skill list and found two new entries. _Oh, so the two messages were for two skills… but what could the second skill be? I only used one new move._

 **Kansas Smash - LVL 1: The user uses the power granted from One For All in a palm strike, which disperses the power of the blow but increases its concussive force. Creates a pressure wave that can hit enemies at a distance, similar to Detroit Smash. Strength increases the force of the strike and pressure wave. Dexterity increases the speed and accuracy of the pressure wave. Deals standard One For All self damage. Significant damage may cause status effects.**

 **Power Limiter (10%) - LVL 1: The user limits the amount of power he draws from One For All when using One For All abilities. Reduces potency of and self-damage caused by One For All abilities. Automatically activated when attacking human targets to prevent accidental death.**

"Oh, wow. I unlocked two abilities when I forced Kacchan off of me, on top of the ability I unlocked just from the normal punch. I think I didn't hurt myself seriously by forcing Kacchan away because one of my new abilities, Power Limiter, activated automatically. My arm is still a little sore, probably bruised a bit, but the limited power reduced the damage significantly."

All Might nodded, smiling slightly. "Well, it seems that One For All has integrated quite well in you, if you are able to instinctively call upon it as you did. We will still need to increase your Strength, since you are unable to use One For All's full power without injuring yourself considerably, but you are likely able to use a significant portion of One For All's power without injuring yourself seriously even now."

Izuku smiled at the praise and nodded, before tilting his head and looking at All Might with curiosity. "You introduced yourself to Kacchan as Toshinori Yagi…" He trailed off as All Might (or was it Toshinori?) coughed a bit of blood into his hand. "Yes, that is my real name. I… hope you don't mind that I didn't tell you until now. When you keep your identity secret for years it just becomes second nature."

The young Gamer shook his head. "I don't mind, I understand the kind of secrecy that heroes have to keep to protect themselves. Now, what else do you have in mind for training today?"

"I don't want to push you too hard today, since you don't know how to control the power output of One For All to keep yourself safe, but I would like to see if you can produce any other new abilities." All Might gestured towards the ocean behind him. "Try powering up your legs and jumping into the water."

...

Izuku glanced nervously over at Bakugo, who had been eyeing him suspiciously throughout class that day. He was glad he was able to heal so quickly, having fully healed since his training yesterday, because he wouldn't want to face this inevitable confrontation while sore. Not that he thought Bakugo would attack him- well, not that he thought Bakugo would try to _seriously_ injure him, but it was better for him to be 100% just in case. He didn't know the blond as well as he had when they were 4.

He wasn't too worried, though. Izuku had spent several hours thinking about what to tell Bakugo last night, and he'd come up with a more likely and better explained version of the lie he'd told yesterday, one that (he hoped) would convince the skeptical blond that he was telling the truth. If not, Izuku supposed he would have to completely refuse to answer Kacchan, because there was no way he was going to tell the unstable blond the truth and put his mentor and idol at risk. The green haired boy hoped it wouldn't come to that; they'd been friends for as long as they both could remember, and despite Kacchan's treatment of him, Izuku didn't want to totally alienate or push his old friend away.

With one part relief that the wait was over and one part trepidation at the main event coming up, Izuku realized that class was over and students were filtering out of the classroom, all except for the one whose eyes were trying to melt him from across the room.

A few moments after the last of the students left the classroom, Bakugo got to his feet angrily, sending his chair backwards a short distance, slamming his hands on Izuku's desk. "Alright Deku, you owe me an explanation for that shit I saw yesterday. You've been keeping serious shit secret, and I'm gonna get the truth from you right now, got it?"

Izuku steeled himself mentally, hoping that his Bluff would work, before starting to weave his yarn.

"Alright, I'll tell you. I've had the Gamer quirk for my entire life, but I recently discovered a new ability within my quirk's framework. Y'know how you can unlock new abilities in RPGs periodically?" Bakugo nodded impatiently. "Well, I just unlocked my first ability two days ago, the one you saw on the beach yesterday. It lets me power myself up a lot, but costs HP to use. I figured out that I could unlock these abilities a few months ago, so I hired a personal trainer with a medical background to supervise me and help me get stronger quickly. That was the guy you met yesterday, Dr. Yagi. He-"

Bakugo cut him off angrily. "Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but it doesn't explain why you were keeping it all secret from everyone. You got an explanation for that, shit-for-brains?"

Izuku silently pulled out his phone, opening a bookmark for a news article that he'd found last night while preparing his explanation for Bakugo. The blond read the headline and frowned, before paling as he read the body of the article.

 _Missing Child Found Dead in Supervillain Hideout_

 _A team of superheroes and police today found the corpse of Yoshirou Matsumoto while searching the hideout of the recently captured supervillain coalition "The Four Horsemen." Matsumoto was kidnapped two months ago, shortly after manifesting his quirk, Atomiser. His quirk, an Emitter type, was capable of disintegrating almost any material, with the exception of heavy metals such as lead. His abilities gained significant media attention because of the high applicability of such a quirk, and the likelihood of the child becoming a successful hero in the future. First responders reported-_

Bakugo tore his eyes away from the horrible article, looking at Deku's grim facade. _He was trying to protect himself… while I've been trying to convince the world that I'm the next big hero, like that kid in the article was said to be… what if I had been taken away too?_ _But… if Izuku knew this, why didn't he warn me? Why did he let me keep putting myself at risk?_

Bakugo's face contorted into a vicious snarl. "You knew about this shit and didn't think to tell me? What the fuck, were you trying to get me _killed_ , like this fucking kid?"

Izuku's eyes widened in alarm. "No, no! Not at all! I didn't know about this at all until a few months ago, and I kept the new information about my quirk secret because I hadn't unlocked any abilities yet! I knew you would be fine, because you already know how to use your quirk really well to defend yourself!"

Bakugo grabbed his collar. "Yea, I can defend myself so well, I was able to get caught by that sludge fucker."

Izuku cringed. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I was worried that you would just ignore me or belittle me because I was trying to rain on your parade. I mean, think about it, how would you have reacted if useless, quirkless Deku came up to you and told you not to show off your quirk?"

It was Bakugo's turn to grimace. Deku was right, he probably would have blown the wimp's ass up for suggesting something like that. He released his former friend's collar and sat down on his desk heavily, cradling his face in one hand.

"So that's what you've been doing. You've been training with your personal trainer to unlock your new abilities and get into Yuuei without drawing villains' attention." Izuku nodded.

The explosive blond sat for a moment, contemplative, before standing suddenly. "I want to train with you."

At Izuku's startled expression, the blond sneered a little and explained himself. "I've been resting on my laurels too much. I'm so far ahead of these small fry in our class, I just assumed I'd be set without having to put in any work. Meanwhile, you, with a quirk that's crazy powerful, have been training for months." His expression turned up into a smirk. "I can't just let you get ahead of me like that."

After a beat of silence, the smirk fell from his face and he looked down a little bit. "I'm also not strong enough to handle villains yet, which I really should have figured out when that sludge guy took me hostage."

Deku was speechless. _Wow… Kacchan want to train with me… I guess my story convinced him pretty well, huh?_

 **Congratulations! Your skill "Bluff" has increased to LVL 5!**

Izuku ignored the popup, instead opting to extend his hand to his fellow hero in training. "I have to ask my trainer, but I think it'll be alright. I don't want anything to happen to you, so I'd be happy to train with you so we can both get stronger. Who knows, maybe we can both get into Yuuei that way?"

Bakugo's smirk was back. "Heh, there's no question about me getting in, but if you're gonna be my rival, you better get in too."

They shook on it.

 **B/N**

 **Greetings, fellow readers! It is I, your friendly neighborhood beta guy, here to answer some common questions I've seen in the comments section.**

 _ **What's the pairing going to be?**_

 **As of now, there is no pairing planned to the best of my knowledge. Our aspiring author may have secret plans I am unaware of, but I don't think so. Either way, if anyone mentions some mpreg bs, I will banish you to the timeout corner of fanfiction, and force you to read an mpreg sonic harem prison fanfiction with at least 12 OCs until you go insane. (Aka-go wild, I want to see how deranged you can be.)**

 _ **What's the update schedule going to be?**_

 **The author rotates jobs every four months, between professional belly dancing, writing fanfiction, and preparing for the possibility of an imminent Spanish Inquisition. He wishes to test the theory that nobody expects it, as he now does. As such, his free time is very random in its temporary existence. Rest assured that the next chapter will be here by February 31, 2019.**

 **Now. Complaints. I've heard a few. Some of them are smart, and some I even agree with. I will take everyone's complaints into consideration for future edits to this story.**

 **A/N**

 **Disregard the above comments, my pet beta got out of his cryogenic storage in the basement. Apologies about the slow updates, but the belly dancing has been very demanding lately and I couldn't find the time to write. Rest assured, I will continue this story so long as I don't get smote by an angry deity, and the updates will probably not be further than a few months apart at the very most unless I get smote by a mildly annoyed deity.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: To that one guest reviewer from friggin ages ago (you know who you are): no u**

 **Also, regarding the very OOC Bakugo, I did that on purpose because I really don't like the canon portrayal of the character. I decided that on rare occasions he'd actually have a personality other than just 'absolute douchecanoe', and I hope you guys like that.**

 **(Sorry if this time skip seems abrupt, but I've had a good idea and the plot between then and now is kinda bleh canon-y so I'm gonna try to get to the good stuff quicker)**

 **B/N: our aspiring author was going to waste you amazing audience members on some weird slice of life thing where he went in depth into ua's culture and classes. i turned him off of that, needless to say.**

 **also, the author has finally finished competing in the international belly dancing grand tour, and will now be able to update more frequently. please congratulate him on his spectacular performance. he placed 4th in the whole of russia.**

 **Damn beta got out of cryogen again.**

Izuku stared upward in awe at the towering Yuuei building. Today was the big day, the day he was going to face his biggest challenge yet. He checked his stats one more time, marvelling at the incredible numbers that were making his dream a possibility.

 **Name: Izuku Midoriya**

 **Level: 19**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **HP: 4675 / 4675**

 **SP: 4875 / 4875**

 **STR: 207**

 **STM: 195**

 **DEX: 174**

 **VIT: 187**

 **INT: 179**

 **WIS: 195**

 **Original Quirk: The Gamer (Provides the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body Abilities)**

 **Received Quirk: One For All (Allows usage of One For All abilities)**

The young teen could hardly believe that those stats were his, and not some pro hero's. He'd transformed from an unusually fit and athletic kid to a physical powerhouse in a mere 10 months, just about doubling every single stat through hard work and exercise. The last four months with Kacchan and Toshinori (or "Dr. Yagi" in front of Kacchan) had also equipped him with a wide variety of highly effective combat abilities, both with and without his new quirk.

Toshinori had helped him hone his control over One For All very well, and the progress they'd made had been impressive. Although he couldn't fully control his power level yet, nor use the full power of One For All without injuring himself, Izuku had unlocked a couple power limiters that allowed him to use his quirk with trivial repercussions, and he had come up with a few moves that limited the amount of his body that was damaged from using One For All.

Surprisingly, various spars with Kacchan had also helped Izuku come up with some new moves. The explosive blond was quite creative with his quirk, using the concussive force of his explosions to launch himself through the air and maneuver around Izuku during spars. Izuku appropriated the idea for Kacchan's move, creating an ability that allowed him to launch or maneuver himself using the shockwaves from various One For All attacks. He'd also adapted to Bakugo's up close and personal fighting style by creating a few non-quirk-enhanced moves to counteract Bakugo's hand-to-hand combat abilities.

Izuku was jolted from his thoughts when someone shouldered into him from behind, shoving him forward a step. "Don't just sit and gawk like a jackass, Deku, get a move on. We've got an entrance exam to ace."

Izuku quickly resumed walking, not wanting to be late to the exam. He had not been the only one to make serious progress during the last four months; Kacchan had also improved by leaps and bounds under Toshinori's apt tutelage.

 **Name: Katsuki Bakugo**

 **Level: 17**

 **Title: Student**

 **HP: 2400 / 2400**

 **SP: 2375 / 2375**

 **STR: 107**

 **STM: 95**

 **DEX: 102**

 **VIT: 96**

 **INT: 77**

 **WIS: 84**

 **Quirk: Explosion (Allows usage of Explosive abilities)**

Izuku was impressed by how much Kacchan had improved, even without the benefits of Gamer's Body. His childhood friend had thrown himself into their training, managing to keep pace with Izuku's level increase despite taking longer to heal and recover between training sessions. The boy had been quite strong for his age before; now, he was a force to be reckoned with.

The two made their way inside, with Izuku periodically scanning the people they came across. He was pleased to note that very few competitors had raw stats comparable to Kacchan's, and that no one even came close to matching Izuku's (though admittedly, Izuku's stats were comparable to those of mid-level pro heroes, so anyone matching stats like that would be suspiciously strong). Some competitors had quirks that would provide a considerable advantage in the practical portion of the exam, however, so Izuku knew he and Kacchan would still have to work to earn their spot at Yuuei.

The theoretical exam was trivial for the two aspiring heroes. Izuku's analytical skills and practice with evaluating heroes and villains in a fight granted him a significant advantage on the 'simulated battle' questions, and his general intelligence and superb memory made short work of the 'general knowledge' questions. Bakugo had spent a significant amount of time practicing for the theoretical portion of the test in preparation for the entrance exam, so even though theoretical work was not his forte, the explosive blond was more than capable of answering the questions on the test satisfactorily.

Soon enough, the two were seated in a large auditorium, ready to hear the rules for the upcoming practical portion of the exam. Izuku was passing the time scanning random people from the crowd, trying and failing to find anyone of particular interest. Bakugo was fidgeting next to him, ready to blow something up after sitting still to take a test for several hours.

As the last few stragglers made their way in, the lights in the auditorium dimmed and three large screens behind the stage at the front powered on, displaying the logo for the school. A figure made his way up onstage as spotlights clicked on above him. Izuku scanned him.

 **Name: Present Mic**

 **Level: 36**

 **Title: Hero / Instructor**

 **HP: 4425 / 4425**

 **SP: 4500 / 4500**

 **STR: 185**

 **STM: 180**

 **DEX: 176**

 **VIT: 177**

 **INT: 162**

 **WIS: 164**

 **Quirk: Voice (Allows usage of unique vocal abilities)**

Izuku's jaw dropped. He knew intellectually that his stats matched up with those of pro heroes, but to actually see for himself that Present Mic, one of his potential teachers, famous pro hero that Izuku admired, had lower stats than Izuku did… In a fight, Present Mic's superior experience and greater familiarity and control over his quirk would probably tip the scales in his favor, but Izuku knew that it would be a very close fight, and if Izuku went all out with One For All and ignored the danger of permanent injury, he would almost certainly win.

The thought was at once sobering and exhilarating for the young hero-aspirant. Minus the official training at Yuuei and the hero certification, Izuku was theoretically ready to go out and take on bad guys right that moment. _I wonder if I could convince All Might to let me go fight villains with him now? I'd be able to get a lot more XP that way._

The green-haired boy was brought out of his thoughts by a light smack to the back of his head. "You were mumbling again, Deku. Don't get us kicked out because you couldn't stay quiet." Izuku chuckled abashedly and rubbed his head, turning his attention back to the explanation of the practical portion of the exam, listening to the discussion of the robot-villains and their point values.

Izuku was surprised when a fellow examinee stood up, asking about the four villains on the printout, instinctively observing the boy.

 **Name: Unknown**

 **Level: 16**

 **Title: Student**

 **HP: 1850 / 1850**

 **SP: 2050 / 2050**

 **STR: 87**

 **STM: 82**

 **DEX: 84**

 **VIT: 79**

 **INT: 73**

 **WIS: 67**

 **Quirk: Engine (+50% DEX & +100% movement speed per Gear active)**

Izuku was fairly impressed with the boy's stats; they were higher than most that he'd seen so far. Unless he got unlucky during the actual exam, Izuku was fairly certain this one would be accepted by Yuuei.

"In addition, you, with the curly hair, have been muttering this whole time. It's distracting! If you're not going to take this examination seriously, you should leave now!"

Izuku turned bright red and slunk down in his seat as the examinee sat back down. Bakugo smirked at him. "Maybe now you'll actually shut up for five seconds."

Present Mic finished his explanation of the zero pointer, and before long the examinees were on their respective busses heading towards the battle centers. Izuku was ambivalent about the fact that he and Bakugo were testing at different centers; on the one hand, if they had been tested together they could have provided support for each other should either of them need it, but on the other, this way they wouldn't have to compete for points.

When the bus arrived at the battle center, Izuku was awed by the size of the testing area. The magnitude of the test really set in for him as he gazed at the massive city before him. He looked around at the various examinees gathered at his battle center, scanning several of them to get a feel for who he would have to compete with for points. His eyebrow raised when he caught sight of the one who had asked Present Mic about the zero pointer (and, incidentally, called Izuku out for muttering). Izuku walked over to him, having nothing better to do while waiting for the exam to start.

"Uh, hello. I'd, uh, like to apologize for muttering during the presentation earlier. It's a bad habit of mine when I start thinking really hard. I'm Izuku." He held out his hand towards his fellow examinee, who looked at Izuku appraisingly for a second before stiffly accepting the handshake.

"I am Iida Tenya. Thank you for apologizing for your unprofessional conduct; I suppose I cannot blame you for analyzing the rules of the exam. May the best examinee win!"

Izuku smiled and nodded. "May the best examinee win."

" **OKAY… START!"**

The doors to the battle center swung open, and many examinees looked up at the tower where Present Mic was standing in surprise and confusion. Izuku's eyes widened in surprise, but he came back to his wits and took off into the city with other examinees that weren't caught off-guard, pushing past some examinees that hadn't yet realized what was happening. On his personal Heads-Up-Display, a 10 minute timer started ticking down, recording the time remaining in the exam.

Izuku pushed 25% of the power of One For All into his legs, activating an ability he'd created called **Speed Boost** to dash ahead of the other competitors. He winced slightly; as opposed to a one-time burst ability, using One For All over time caused damage over time and used up his stamina quite a bit. Even using the 25% limiter, and even only using it on the lower half of his body, the damage was going to wear him down fairly quickly. Luckily, the exam was quite short, so he likely wouldn't run low on health or stamina before everything was over. He'd definitely be sore that evening though.

A cloud of dust and smoke obscured Izuku's vision as an examinee passed him. The green-haired boy squinted through the smokescreen and just barely made out a familiar looking blue outfit. _May the best examinee win indeed._

Suddenly, a large robot with a large "1" painted on it burst out of the wall in front of Izuku. He was unfazed, however, and continued forward without slowing, scanning the one pointer in front of him.

 **Name: N/A (One Pointer)**

 **Level: N/A**

 **Title: Simulated Villain**

 **HP: 1000 / 1000 (Armored: -50% DMG)**

 **SP: N/A**

 **STR: 100**

 **STM: N/A**

 **DEX: 50**

 **VIT: 40**

 **INT: N/A**

 **WIS: N/A**

 **Quirk: N/A**

 _Interesting, they don't have certain stats because those stats don't apply to things that aren't alive. I don't know why Stamina isn't represented by the robot's battery life or something equivalent. Regardless, these one pointers aren't strong or robust enough to pose a challenge even if I weren't using One For All, and the one pointer even has unarmored weak points on its arm joints. These bots are designed to be a challenge to people with half my strength, I could likely take them down without using One For All at all. With One For All, it'll be trivial._

Even as he analyzed his opponent, he sped toward the bot, ready to obliterate it. Izuku jumped to maintain his momentum as he lifted a leg in a spinning kick, blowing straight through the flimsy armor on its front and reducing the one pointer to a cloud of debris.

 **You have destroyed a One Pointer!**

 **Reward: 100 XP**

 **XP: 7029 / 19.3k → 7129 / 19.3k**

 **Total Points: 1**

Izuku landed on his feet and resumed running, hoping to find somewhere with more targets. _One point certainly isn't going to cut it in an exam like this._ In a distant gap in the surrounding buildings, he could see some explosions and flying debris, likely from Tenya doing battle with more robots. He pushed himself, going as fast as he could without using a larger amount of One For All.

As he approached, he saw the remains of several robot villains lying around a Tenya-shaped blur, surrounded by numerous robots of all three point values. Despite his high speed and powerful attacks, the mock villains were still closing in on him, and Izuku knew that if the one pointer had 100 strength, the higher-point villains would be strong enough to deliver some fairly dangerous attacks. Izuku poured on the speed as he analyzed the two and three pointers, unwilling to let his fellow examinee to be hurt.

 **Name: N/A (Two Pointer)**

 **Level: N/A**

 **Title: Simulated Villain**

 **HP: 1000 / 1000 (Armored: -50% DMG)**

 **SP: N/A**

 **STR: 100**

 **STM: N/A**

 **DEX: 100**

 **VIT: 40**

 **INT: N/A**

 **WIS: N/A**

 **Quirk: N/A**

 **Name: N/A (Three Pointer)**

 **Level: N/A**

 **Title: Simulated Villain**

 **HP: 1000 / 1000 (Armored: -90% DMG)**

 **SP: N/A**

 **STR: 200**

 **STM: N/A**

 **DEX: 50**

 **VIT: 40**

 **INT: N/A**

 **WIS: N/A**

 **Quirk: N/A**

 _Interesting. Instead of being stronger, the two pointer is faster than the one pointer, making it more difficult to fight. The three pointer, on the other hand, is basically a tank, with really thick armor and no visible weak points like the one and two pointers. The two and three pointers shouldn't be a problem for me, though the three pointer might take a couple of hits to break through the thick armor._

As Izuku approached, Tenya jumped toward an approaching an approaching three pointer and used his engine-powered legs to deliver heavy kicks to the main body of the bot, denting the armor until it began to crumple. He followed up with a spinning kick that knocked the armor away fully, before thrusting his hand in and pulling out some important-looking electronics, shutting the three pointer down.

Unfortunately, this left him open to attack from behind; Izuku watched as a two-pointer darted toward him from behind, reeling back for an attack that would probably put the examinee out of the running if it landed. Izuku took a leap and flew into the clearing with the robots, delivering an axe kick directly to the weak point on the two pointer where its head connected to its body, causing the bot to explode satisfyingly and awarding Izuku two more points and 200 more XP.

Tenya turned, surprised, but recovered quickly and gave Izuku a nod of thanks before turning and taking the head off another precocious two pointer with a roundhouse kick. Izuku let him deal with the bots in front of him, choosing to take on the numerous faux villains that had attempted to surround his fellow competitor.

A three pointer and two one pointers charged forward as the others stayed back, apparently waiting for an opening. Izuku pushed the power of One For All into his hands and flicked his fingers at the approaching one pointers, knocking them backward and causing their armor to crumple under the force of the **Delaware Smashes**. They slowly got back up as the three pointer continued forward, directly into Izuku's waiting fist, which broke straight through its armor but didn't quite reach the circuitry within. With a grunt, Izuku pulled backward on the armor plating, tearing it off the three pointer and revealing the circuitry within.

Unfortunately, the three pointer was unwilling to sit idly as Izuku attacked it, and swung heavily at Izuku. The green-haired examinee was too encumbered by the sheet of metal still stuck on his arm to dodge. Izuku was launched backward, smashing through the wall of a nearby building and into a previously-dormant two pointer, which activated abruptly. Izuku's eyes widened, and he brought the armor plate on his arm in front of him just in time to block the two pointer's surprise attack.

Izuku slid back out the hole in the wall with a grunt, finally removing the sheet of metal from his arm and using a bit of One For All's power to chuck it at the approaching two pointer like a frisbee. The thick metal cut straight through the weaker armor of the bot, bisecting it horizontally.

The boy turned, only to be forced to duck under another massive swing from the three pointer. Izuku struck the vulnerable circuitry within it with a punch, causing it to explode in his face spectacularly. He stumbled back, coughing but unharmed. _Jeez, these robots shouldn't be exploding like that… even if the battery had ruptured, that would be more of a spontaneous fire than an explosion. Maybe it's an implanted explosive to let examinees know when they dealt a killing blow to the bot's circuitry…_

Izuku used a quick low-powered **Delaware Smash** to dissipate the black smoke in front of him, incidentally striking an approaching one pointer and bringing it down for good. Izuku launched a kick at the heavily damaged armor of the other, crushing the internal circuitry and causing another artificial explosion that signified the destruction of a bot. _Alright, 10 points and there's still 8 minutes and change in the exam. As long as I can keep up this pace, I should be able to reach 60-ish points by the end of the exam, which should be more than enough to pass._

Izuku turned his attention back to the bots in front of him, consisting of a three pointer, a couple of two pointers and a one pointer. The three pointer and one pointer charged straight forward as the previous bots had, while the two pointers stayed on the periphery and circled around to flank Izuku.

Because of how slow the three and one pointers were compared to Izuku, he opted to take out the two pointers before they could become a problem. Darting to the right, he launched a powered-up punch that broke through the bot's weak armor and crushed the electronics within, which exploded as expected. He spun around as the other bot came up behind him, lashing out with a backhand that caused the entire left side of the bot to crumple inward.

Izuku heard the loud approach of the three pointer from behind and sent a strong back kick towards it, sending the bot back a few paces and ruining its front armor. The one pointer coming up next to it was reduced to debris with a powerful punch. Izuku sent two **Delaware Smashes** at the three pointer to finish it off.

 **Congratulations! Your skill "Power Limiter (25%)" has increased to LVL 3!**

 **Congratulations! Your skill "Delaware Smash" has increased to LVL 5!**

 _18 points in two and a half minutes. Huh. I really had nothing to worry about. I guess it's alright that I overestimated the difficulty of the entrance exam, but I haven't even had to break out any of my more innovative moves to deal with these bots yet. I didn't take into account that this test is designed to be possible for untrained children with decent quirks to do well in, not to be a challenge to a well-trained person with abnormally high physical abilities and the quirk of the top hero._

Izuku checked his HP and SP, and frowned slightly. _Hmm, I need to pace myself. I've been throwing around One For All-powered moves pretty rapidly, which already burnt through a fifth of my stamina and a tenth of my health. I don't want to pass out or fracture a bone or something and be unable to continue._

Other examinees had been steadily streaming into the area as Izuku had finished off his opponents, and now that Izuku had a moment to breathe, he realized that the bot population in the clearing was dropping alarmingly fast. _I need to find somewhere with some targets to destroy and fast, I can't compete with other examinees for targets like this and expect to do well._

Izuku took off down a nearby alley, looking for bots that hadn't been found yet. _I did encounter that two-pointer in a building…_ Izuku powered up his fist and broke through the brick wall at the end of the alley, entering the building and almost running into a dormant one pointer. Before it even had a chance to activate, Izuku obliterated it with a punch.

Izuku was about to break through the next wall and head into the adjacent building when he heard a noise from above him, and realization struck. _There must be bots on other floors as well. It makes sense that they would scatter robots throughout the buildings like this; it's used to simulate a villain's hideout, and allows smart examinees with stealth quirks to sneak up on the inactive bots in the buildings like they would sneak up on villains in their hideouts. Otherwise, students with quirks to keep them hidden wouldn't be able to get into Yuuei; they wouldn't have the abilities necessary to take out bots in open combat. But just like in a villain hideout, I made too much noise down here and alerted the other bots in the building to my presence, and now they're activating. Better deal with them quickly._

Izuku picked up a heavy chunk of wall lying on the ground beside him and threw it directly upward through the floor, following it up with a **Kansas Smash** to do more damage to the building with a pressure wave. Several floors were destroyed by the attack, and the bots within tumbled quickly towards the ground. Izuku darted out of the way and watched as a two pointer hit the ground hard, only to be crushed under a three pointer following it. The armor of the three pointer was enough to prevent it from being destroyed on impact, but Izuku's follow up punch did the trick. _Alright, 24 points now._

Izuku continued to employ his new strategy, breaking through walls to hunt down bots in adjacent buildings. Izuku quickly realized that only about a third of the buildings had bots in them, and some appeared to have already been cleared out by like minded examinees, but the remaining ones always granted between two and eight points when Izuku broke the ceiling down, bringing his score up to 47 after five minutes and 20 buildings.

As the bots in his latest target building crashed to the ground in front of him, Izuku bent down and braced his hands on his knees, panting heavily.

 **You've gained +1 STM for exerting yourself.**

 _Running from building to building with One For All and constantly using it to break through the ceiling and finish off bots has cost a lot of HP and SP. I've got plenty of points, and there's still a couple of minutes left, so if I take a moment to rest up before going to look for one last group of bots I should-_

Izuku's thoughts were cut off as the building was suddenly obliterated by something very _large_ passing through it, sending him straight through a wall and into the street with heavy bruising. Izuku rolled when he hit the ground, returning to his feet shakily to look up at the absolutely _massive_ thing that had hit him. _Holy-_ that _is the zero pointer!?_

Izuku wasn't about to stick around while that thing rolled over him. Gamer's Mind helped him keep his cool enough to scan the thing, but he was immediately high-tailing it out of there immediately after.

 **Name: N/A (Zero Pointer)**

 **Level: N/A**

 **Title: Simulated Villain**

 **HP: 10000 / 10000 (Armored: -50% DMG)**

 **SP: N/A**

 **STR: 1000**

 **STM: N/A**

 **DEX: 50**

 **VIT: 400**

 **INT: N/A**

 **WIS: N/A**

 **Quirk: N/A**

 _Jeez, that thing is insanely strong… guess that's to be expected though. Other than that, though, it's pretty slow and only has the weak armor of the one and two pointers. It's enormous, though, and tearing at it until I do 10000 damage would probably take a decent bit of time. No way I'm going to deal with that if I don't have to._

He pushed a quarter of One For All's power into his legs, but stumbled when pain exploded in his right leg.

 **Status Effect: Fractured Leg (-25% DEX, leg usage causes more damage)**

 _Oh shit, I didn't take the extra damage from that hit into account. I think I just fractured something… I can still run and get out of the zero pointer's way, though it'll seriously harm that leg if I take it too far, but I won't be able to get many more points, if any. Hopefully forty-something will be enough._

Izuku grit his teeth and kept running, taking advantage of the pain tolerance granted by his Gamer's Mind to keep the power flowing to his legs despite the excruciating throb in his leg.

Suddenly, a shadow passed over his head, and he looked up to see a gigantic robotic hand fly forward with the force of a freight train. It impacted the ground hard about two dozen meters in front of Izuku, kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust and debris and sending the green-haired examinee tumbling backwards, further injuring him and causing immense pain to flare in his injured leg.

Izuku got back to his feet, favoring his right leg, only to realize that the zero pointer was almost on top of him, it's treads rumbling dangerously close to him. He tried to push One For All into his legs again, only to feel a dangerously high level of pain throb through his injured leg. _If I try to run on this, it'll just shatter and I'll be helpless and in even more pain._ Izuku was forced to put more of One For All into his other leg and try leaping forward to safety.

The powerful jump sent Izuku soaring forward, clearing the crater created by the zero pointer's punch before he came back down to Earth in a painful jumble of rolling limbs. He attempted to get back to his feet, avoiding putting weight on his right leg, only to feel another burst of pain in his left leg, accompanied by another status effect message. With a groan, he fell back to the ground and looked back at the zero pointer.

 _It's a fair distance away, but it's closing fast and the exam still has a minute and change to go, so I'll need to be farther away to avoid it. I can't run on my legs anymore, but I could still use One For All in my hands to launch myself to safety. I won't be getting anymore points, but at least-_

Izuku's thoughts were cut off as he heard a groan from nearby. He glanced over with wide eyes at a fellow examinee, who appeared to be trapped under a rock and just waking up from unconsciousness. Looking across the debris-scattered road, he saw several more examinees either injured or unconscious lying in the path of the zero pointer.

 _There are so many people here… everyone is in this zero pointer's path. If it were just one or two, I could grab them and carry them with me, but there are too many. Yuuei wouldn't allow anyone to die in their entrance exams, would they? Probably not, but what if someone is buried under the rubble and the zero pointer accidentally rolls over them?_

Izuku saw only two options: getting everyone somewhere the zero pointer couldn't reach, or stopping the zero pointer from reaching everyone. There were too many people for the first option to work, especially since the other examinees were running away from the scene instead of helping, but the second option…

 _Let's see… I could take down the one pointers at 1000 hp with the same 50% armor as the zero pointer in a single hit at 20% power, and it was overwhelming enough to make them essentially disintegrate, indicating that, as a conservative estimate, 50% more damage was dealt than was necessary. That's 1500 damage at 20%, which would be 7.5k at 100% with a single punch, approximately. I probably don't need two hands, but it would guarantee a successful attack._

Izuku breathed deeply, calming himself and regaining a bit of SP. He waited a moment for the zero pointer to draw closer, before pushing himself upright on his heavily damaged legs and pushing the power of One For All into his hands. Grimacing, he jumped into the air without any One For All boost, and released two **Delaware Smashes** downwards with his index fingers to propel himself upward, mimicking a technique that Bakugo had developed to launch himself with his explosions. As he lifted off, he prepped and released another two smashes with his middle fingers, then with his ring and pinky fingers, gaining speed and height as he reached approximately head level on the zero pointer.

With a tremendous cry, Izuku poured the entire power of One For All into his arms as he brought them over his head. He launched the devastating double hammer fist directly into the face of the approaching zero pointer, caving its apparent face in and knocking the entire massive robot backwards. Explosions rippled down the bot's body as it fell.

 **Achievement Unlocked: Plus Ultra!**

 **Defeat the Zero Pointer during the Entrance Exam (despite or perhaps because of the fact that it is worth no points)**

 **Reward: 10000 XP**

 **XP: 11.8k / 19.3k → 2529 / 20.8k**

 **Congratulations! You are now Level 20! You have** **10 unspent skill points!**

 **Status Effect: Broken Arm (-40% STR, -15% DEX, arm usage causes more damage)**

 **Status Effect: Broken Arm (-40% STR, -15% DEX, arm usage causes more damage)**

Izuku hung in the air for a moment, all of his limbs throbbing, before gravity took hold and he began to plummet. His eyes widened.

 _Oh shit, I'm falling from almost ten stories and I've already taken a ton of damage from One For All. I may be able to pull off some_ _ **Delaware Smashes**_ _to slow my descent, and I'll pump One For All through my body to boost my vitality for the impact, but will that be enough?_

Even as he ran his plan through his mind, he was already in motion, rotating in the air to face the ground and fighting the wind resistance with his arms to direct his hands downward. He pushed the full power of One For All into his entire body, boosting his vitality and meagre health reserves by several times, and launching several full-power **Delaware Smashes** off to the sides (he couldn't shoot them straight down; there were examinees below him).

The blasts of air pressure did help decrease his speed, but Izuku was still travelling dangerously fast. _I'll probably survive because of the vitality boost from One For All, but I may end up with permanent injuries. I just have to keep-_

Just as he fired off the next volley of **Delaware Smashes** , a series of popups flashed on his head's up display in time with the sickening cracking sounds of fingers breaking. He grimaced, ignoring the messages telling him his fingers were broken and instead opting to thrust his arms out to the side to increase his air resistance as much as possible. As he neared the ground, he closed his eyes and braced for impact.

 _Slap!_

Izuku felt a hand strike his cheek unexpectedly, before losing all momentum and gently plopping onto the ruined pavement below him. Izuku groaned as the throbbing in his limbs increased, but opened his eyes in time to see his savior (who, incidentally, had been the first of the examinees he'd seen in danger) lose her lunch over the side of the piece of debris that she appeared to have been riding. Other examinees were either still lying on the street, pinned under rubble, or milling around after having freed themselves, and many were staring at the destroyed remains of the zero pointer.

" **Time's up!"**

Izuku sighed and relaxed, resting his head against the asphalt. Forty seven points and _probably_ a spot in Yuuei's heroics program, in exchange for four broken limbs and, likely, a reputation as being ridiculously powerful, painting a target on him for any villains that want to eliminate powerful future heroes while they're still untrained. Actually, Izuku considered, he'd also earned a truly ridiculous 14.7k XP and leveled up. _Honestly, all things considered, this was a pretty damn good day._

Izuku's nice view of the sky was soon obscured by the wrinkled visage of a pro hero. _Recovery Girl,_ Izuku's exhausted mind helpfully supplied. He was too tired to even bother scanning her; he knew he probably wouldn't remember her stats in his state anyway, and he would probably get a chance to later if he had, in fact, gotten into Yuuei.

A quick kiss later, and Izuku's considerable injuries were healed, though at the expense of his remaining SP. Izuku's head lolled to the side as he faded into unconsciousness.

 **B/N 2: prepare for my new omakes, coming soon to theaters near you.**

 **A/N: So you guys know how to prepare yourselves, here's an excerpt from discord. Fair warning, I'm not going to edit my beta's omake at all, I want to keep it in its purest form.**

 **im thinking spider pig mineta**

 **where he uses the balls like spider man uses his grippy fingers to steal everyones eyebrows with sticky balls**

 **what the actual fuck**

 **like now I'm just confused**

 **the budget on these omkaes doesnt cover eyebrows guys**

 **we gotta make cuts and eyebrows are the first to go**


End file.
